


Out of the Depths

by Revasnaslan



Series: Out of the Depths AU [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Background Thace/Ulaz, Cultural Differences, Dads of Marmora (Voltron), F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra Keith (Voltron), Marine Biologist Pidge, Mer Galra, Minor Violence, merman Keith
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-11 11:09:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 26,068
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12933978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Revasnaslan/pseuds/Revasnaslan
Summary: Pidge is just a humble intern at the Marmora Bay Marine Institute. She never thought she’d have to take care of anything more important than a pesky octopus, but she somehow wound up taking care of the two mermen that were caught in a net offshore. At least the younger one seems keen on making friends, even if Pidge is worried about how he and his father will fare in captivity and what their fate will be.—Written as part of the 2017 Voltron RarePair Bang.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I finally, _finally_ get to post this fic! :D
> 
>  **Beta**  
>  \- [Akumeoi](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Akumeoi/pseuds/Akumeoi) | [tumblr](https://voxiferous.tumblr.com/)
> 
>  **Artists**  
>  \- [Meteorysh](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Meteorysh) | [tumblr](http://meteorysh.tumblr.com/) | [ART HERE](http://meteorysh.tumblr.com/post/168683716923/pidge-is-just-a-humble-intern-at-the-marmora-bay)  
> \- CrystalPalette | [tumblr](https://crystalpallette.tumblr.com/) | [ART HERE](https://crystalpallette.tumblr.com/post/168698818881/i-should-not-be-this-proud-of-a-few-particles)
> 
> Enjoy!

Katie liked visiting the tide pools on the edge of Marmora Bay. It was fun to follow her father—and sometimes her brother or other members of the Marine Institute staff—around while they looked through the pools, cataloging specimens and making notes. She didn’t know what the notes were for exactly, though. Her father had told her once it involved a lot of counting, which Katie didn’t really understand that well yet.

Her dad had a tendency to ramble, so whenever she was bored of listening to him explain things to others, she would watch the waves. Today, she was perched on a rock, kneeling as she kept a watch out for dolphins or sea lions. It was a way to pass the time when she wasn’t allowed to hold anything except for the odd sea hare—and sometimes not even that, as was the case today. She could tell the tide was coming in, so soon they would have to leave and go back to the Marmora Bay Marine Institute, where her father worked.

While Katie liked visiting the tide pools, sometimes she wished it was a little more exciting.

She was about to return to where her father and brother were sitting, when she caught sight of a flash of purple in the water. Her gaze snapped in the direction of the creature, and she caught a glimpse of a dorsal fin from some kind of shark disappearing beneath the surface. Katie’s brow furrowed in irritation as she pouted—she wasn’t very good at identifying different species, not like her father was, so she couldn’t tell what type it was.

She could only tell that something was… _weird_ about it. The dorsal fin belonged to something that was _huge_ and light lavender, which looked like it had faint, off-white stripes running along the length of its tail. Not like any shark that she had ever seen.

Hastily, she slid off the rock she was perched on and hurried back to her father as quickly as she could, taking care not to slip on any of the rocks bordering the pools. When she got to his side, she patted his arm, trying to get his attention before the creature disappeared entirely. She could still see its dorsal fin poking just above the surface of the water when she glanced back at it—

“Oh, good, pigeon,” her father said, smiling at her as he gathered her under his arm. “We just found an octopus, do you want to see it?”

Katie whined as her expression grew even more irritated—well, she _did_ want to see the octopus, but she wanted to know what the big shark was more! At her father’s question, she shook her head, squirming out from under his arm and looking back out over the water in a desperate attempt to spot the creature again. “I saw a shark, Dad!” she said, bouncing a little bit on her toes in excitement. “It was big and purple and—”

“Oh, big and purple?” her father asked, trying to contain his chuckles—her brother seemed amused too.

“Sharks can’t be purple, Katie,” Matt said, sticking his tongue out at her.

“Can too!” Katie insisted. “I saw one! It was just there!”

Her father reached out to ruffle her hair as he sighed. “Alright, that’s enough, you two,” he said calmly. “How about you go and try to find this purple shark, pigeon? We’ll be here documenting octopuses if you need us.”

Katie glanced at the octopus—it was a small, red thing, not like the huge one they had back at the institute. She knew she probably wasn’t going to be allowed to hold it, even if she asked, so instead, she left them to their observations, and went back to the rock she had been watching the waves from. She peered out over the water very carefully, in the hope that she’d spot the creature when it came to the surface again.

“Now, Matt, can you identify this species?” she heard her father asking.

“ _Octopus… ru—rubescens_?” her brother responded, and Katie saw him tilt his head to the side out of the corner of her eye. He looked rather unsure of himself, but he knew more scientific names than Katie did…

“Yes, very good!”

Katie was about ready to give up—maybe she really had just been imagining it—but then she spotted another flash of a purple fin in the distance. She perked up, trying to see what it was better this time, but couldn’t quite manage it… and the creature was getting away. She frowned, glancing back at her father and brother. Both of them were too distracted by the little octopus that her father was now holding in his hands to notice if she snuck off.

Just for a minute, just to see what the creature was, and then she’d be right back. And her father _had_ said she should try finding it… she was sure she’d be fine. She was four now, after all, and she knew how to handle herself. This was going to be an adventure!

Carefully, she traversed the slippery rocks as she moved along the shore, disappearing out of sight from her father and brother behind a larger grouping of rocks. She tried to keep her eyes peeled for the shark as she walked, taking care not to step too close to the water—she didn’t want to fall in, and her father’s warnings against going into the water without supervision lingered in the back of her mind, but she pushed them aside.

When she found out what the creature was, she could tell her dad and he’d be _so_ impressed that she had managed to find it all by herself!

She froze in place when she heard soft chirps in the distance, listening to the sound over the light roll of the waves against the shore. The noises reminded her of the dolphins they had back at the marine institute, the ones that had gotten beached on shore and needed rehabilitation. Her eyes widened—she hesitated to go back and get her father, though. Her curiosity won out, in the end, and she rounded a boulder that divided the cove from the rest of the beach, peering around the rocks to try and spot the dolphin.

Except it wasn’t a dolphin… it was a merman— _two_ of them, actually.

They were a lot less human-looking than Katie thought they ought to be, based on the stories she had heard from her mother—but her mother always said they were just fairy tales. Her eyes widened as she stared in awe. One of them was an adult, and the other one was small enough that Katie assumed it must have been a child, probably around her age. They were purple, with sleek fur on their upper bodies and scaled tails—the adult’s tail seemed to stretch on _forever_ , with his tail fin disappearing beneath the waves. The adult also had large, fluffy looking ears with a single streak of lighter fur along the inner edges—which were markings that the child seemed to have inherited, although his fur was a few shades darker, and he had a couple of white swirl markings along his sides and arms.

She spotted a flash of bright yellow eyes when the child turned in her direction, though he didn’t seem to have spotted her. Instead, he clambered around the free space on the rock, staring down into the water. Katie thought that perhaps he was watching fish dart around down there and was waiting to dive in after one—though he seemed to be getting rather impatient, since she could see his tail fin twitched back and forth. Meanwhile, the adult appeared to be dozing, resting his chin on one of his arms with the claws on his other hand just barely skimming the top of the waves.

The child shifted, sliding across the rock, tracking a large shadow under the water as he moved. Then, his ears perked, and his expression brightened. Another adult merman surfaced—this one was light lavender, with white facial and swirl-like markings covering his body. He let out a high pitched whistle around the fish he was holding in his jaws and the child copied him. Carefully, the lavender-furred adult deposited the fish beside the child before sinking back into the water again and disappearing.

The child took one look at the fish, and then refused to pay it any mind. Instead, he clambered around the rock and over the purple-furred adult’s back, knocking the wind out of him. The adult let out a displeased trill as he lifted his head to watch the child. However, he didn’t appear to be annoyed so much as exasperated and drowsy. He kept careful watch over the child, letting out an amused purr as the child leaned precariously over the edge of the rock, balancing on his hands as his claws dug into the dull face of his perch.

Katie wondered where these creatures had come from—people knew _of_ mermen as a concept, but nobody had ever _seen_ one outside of movies and stories. She wondered what her father would have said about them, had he been here instead of down the beach from her. With both the child and the purple-furred adult distracted, Katie crept further forward… just to get a better look at them.

And then she slipped, and tumbled into the water.

As she broke the surface, she sputtered, trying to catch her breath. The water wasn’t _that_ deep here, and she was a pretty decent swimmer, but she wasn’t _supposed_ to go into the water without her father watching her—and then, she felt something grab onto her, lifting her out of the water so that it could hold her. Before she got her bearings and managed to wipe the seawater out of her eyes, she thought it was her father, but then her fingers dug into short fur.

She met the solid yellow gaze of the lavender-furred merman she had seen disappear beneath the waves a couple of minutes ago. She froze, staring at him with wide eyes when she noticed that he appeared to have very sharp teeth. However, the merman chirped softly, tilting his head to the side as he met her gaze. Then, he leaned closer, sniffing and nudging at her with his nose, and she laughed when he snorted, blowing a puff of air into her face.

Then, she noticed the other adult had entered the water at this point, although he seemed much more apprehensive about approaching—even going so far as to gather the child into his arms. He stopped about two feet away, only keeping his head above the water as he tilted it to the side. The child squirmed until he was finally released, and then he approached. However, when the lavender-furred adult let out a warning trill—a noise which reminded Katie of her mother scolding her for doing something inappropriate—the child let out a displeased chirp and pouted.

She was set carefully back onto the rocks she had slipped off of, but the mermen didn’t move. All three of them watched her with varying degrees of fascination—the child in particular seemed to not know what to make of her, as if he had never been this close to a human before.

“Um… thank you,” she said politely. Then, she held out her hand, since it was the polite thing to do. The lavender-furred adult tilted his head to the side, ears flicking curiously before he held out his own hand in return. Gingerly, Katie reached out to take hold of one of his fingers, being careful of his claws, and shook it. She was unable to contain her giggles when both adults exchanged perplexed looks, as if they had never seen a handshake before.

“Katie?!”

She started, hearing her father’s voice from down the beach. In an instant, the perplexed expressions vanished from the mermen’s faces—the purple-furred merman gathered the child up in his arms and disappeared back into the water without so much as a goodbye, with an expression that Katie could only describe as terror. However, the lavender-furred one lingered for a moment, staring at her. He held up his hand, making a motion as if telling her to stay put, before he dove back into the water, tail slapping against the surface.

Katie didn’t turn to greet her father when he arrived. Instead, she stared at the spot where the mermen had been with wide eyes, water dripping from her clothes and hair.

“Pigeon, what did I tell you about going into the water by yourself?” her father asked as he scooped her up, tucking her inside his jacket when she shivered against the cold. “Don’t scare me like that!”

“Did you find her, dad?” Matt’s voice came from a couple of yards away, and he appeared from around the rocks a moment later, scrambling to join them.

“Yes, I found her, thank god,” her father sighed, and when Katie looked up at him, he looked about as exasperated as he sounded.

“Dad! Dad, I saw a merman!” Katie said excitedly. “A whole family of them! One saved me when I fell in!” Her shivering was forgotten as soon as she started recounting how she had watched the child and the purple-furred merman on the rocks, how the lavender-furred one had been hunting and then fished her out of the water almost as soon as she had fallen in.

Her father smiled, though when he spoke he sounded awfully tired. “Well, you had quite the adventure, didn’t you?” he asked before kissing her forehead. “Now, come on… your mother is going to be very upset that you went into the water by yourself—”

“They were _purple_ and had glowing eyes, Dad!” she insisted. She peeked over his shoulder, hoping to catch another glimpse of the mermen before they left—hoping that one of them had lingered, just so that she could prove they had been there—but there was nothing besides the waves rolling into the shore with the rising tide.


	2. Chapter 2

When Pidge was younger, she would often visit the beach when she and her brother helped their father with his research—frequently, this had led to them mucking it up in some way. There had been many a turned-over container and escaping octopus that managed to evade them and disappear back into the tide pools before they could catch it again. Some of her most treasured childhood memories had formed on this beach, and it held a special place in her heart.

She still frequented it, even now, but as she had grown older, she had stopped visiting just to play in the waves. The beach had become a place of contemplation, somewhere she could come when she needed to unwind after a long day. Now that she was in the summer between high school and college, she found herself spending more and more time on the beach when she wasn’t helping out at the Marmora Bay Marine Institute with her father.

Today, she was collecting shells as she walked along the shore with her dog—a large Great Dane—trotting along a couple of paces in front of her. On occasion, Rover would abandon his digging and return to her, letting out a deep bark around whatever shell he had found and retrieved for her. This time, when Pidge held out her hand, he dropped the remains of a mussel shell into her palm. His ears perked, and his tongue lolled out of his mouth as he waited for her approval.

“Thanks, bud,” Pidge said sincerely—even though she had hundreds of mussel shells, she still always made sure to thank Rover when he brought her more. He always seemed very proud of his finds. Only when she had thanked him did Rover dart off again, this time in the direction of the waves. Once he was gone, Pidge carefully stashed the shell into the bag she had slung over her shoulder. Then, she sat down on a large rock and took off her shoes, lazily kicking her toes through the water as she watched Rover bound around where the waves broke on shore—even if they couldn’t be called _waves_ , in Pidge’s opinion. She and Rover had already stopped at the tide pools, and while she had searched with the tide low, she hadn’t found very much. She wasn’t disappointed, though. Sometimes that was just how it happened on a given day. Pidge sighed, resting her chin in the palm of her hand as she looked out over the water.

She had had dreams of this place before—several of them, ever since she had been young. They all involved large purple creatures with glowing yellow eyes and long, shark-like tails. In her dream, one of the creatures had fished her out of the water, and she remembered believing that it was a merman, or something equally as silly, once she had woken up. Yet, she found herself returning to the cove, as if staring out over the water would force her dream to become a reality, even if she didn’t really believe in that prophetic dream stuff that Lance sometimes went on about.

Rover started barking excitedly, then—much louder than he had before—and Pidge heard a loud splash somewhere off shore. Her head snapped in the direction of the noise, but all she saw was a large rock, sticking out of the water. It was the one that she and her brother had often swum out to when they were younger. However, she didn’t see anything out there… probably just a seal that had been scared back under the water by Rover’s incessant barking.

She was startled when her phone vibrated in her pocket and she quickly pulled it out, answering it when she saw it was her mother.

“Hey, mom, what’s up?” Pidge asked, already getting to her feet and slipping her shoes back on—she had noticed that it was almost time for her to go to her shift at the marine institute.

“Did you take the van, sweetie?” her mother asked. It sounded like she was gathering up her purse and her keys, as if she were about to head out for the morning. “I didn’t see it in the driveway.”

Pidge groaned, remembering she had forgotten to tell her mother she was planning on taking the van down to the beach. “Yeah, sorry, mom,” she said hastily, even though her mother didn’t sound stern in the slightest. “I’ll return it tonight—my shift starts soon.”

“Oh, well, it’s no rush, sweetie,” her mother assured her. “I’ll just take your brother’s car instead. Oh, and please remind your father that we’re having lasagna for dinner tonight and I’d prefer if he joined us, rather than taking leftovers when he gets home.”

“Yeah, sure, mom…” Pidge said distractedly as she looked around for Rover. When she spotted him, she called for him, but the dog seemed reluctant to leave. He was staring out over the water while wagging his tail with so much excitement he could’ve fallen over.

“The dog giving you trouble?” her mother joked.

Pidge sighed, but she smiled. “Yeah, a little,” she said. “I’ll call you when I leave this afternoon, okay?”

“Be safe, sweetie,” her mother said before they exchanged their goodbyes and Pidge hung up the phone. As she shoved it back into her pocket, she turned to call out for Rover again, but it was only after a third call that he finally followed after her.

—

When Pidge arrived at the marine institute, she was under the impression she’d be helping the veterinarians assess the dolphins for the afternoon. However, as it turned out, she was aiding in a rescue mission. That was how she ended up on the institute’s repurposed pontoon boat. At least, Pidge thought it was a pontoon boat—an oversized one, anyway. Along with her were seven other people, including her father and her brother’s best friend, Shiro.

As Shiro had explained to her, one of the locals had called the institute, insisting that something had been caught in an abandoned net because they had seen splashing off shore. Her father had asked her if she was ready for a rescue mission—which she definitely was. She had heard about this kind of thing from her brother, after he had gotten to go on his first one several years ago. He had saved an otter pup after it had gotten tangled in a net. Now, it was her turn to do some good. But she was immediately told that she was there strictly to observe and takes notes as dictated by one of the on-duty staff they had with them. It was a decision that shouldn’t have ticked her off as much as it did. She understood their reasoning for wanting her to only observe, of course, but she still wanted to help.

The location where they were sent ended up being off shore, where the water was deep enough that they couldn’t see the bottom through the murk. The top edge of the net could be seen, hooked onto the remnants of a man-made structure that Pidge suspected was an old dock or jetty that had fallen in disrepair. She watched as one of the staff members carefully cut the net free of the wooden post.

“Whatever is caught in this thing is heavy…” one of the staff grunted as they began pulling the net in. They were moving slowly, to prevent from startling whatever was caught in the net too badly. Assuming it was still alive.

“I hope it’s not a dolphin…” Shiro commented. “The poor thing will probably be dead by now…”

It was decidedly _not_ a dolphin. It wasn’t even _close_ to being a dolphin.

The first thing that came out of the water was the reddish-purple caudal fin of a shark, followed by a deeper purple, sleek-furred torso—and then Pidge saw the eyes, glowing bright yellow in the slowly fading light. The creature was badly tangled in the net, blood seeping from lacerations where it dug into the scales of his tail—he screeched and struggled as he was dragged up onto the deck, claws scraping against the wooden surface in a desperate attempt to get back into the water.

“There’s two of them!”

A second one, much larger than the first—and probably the older one, based on that fact alone—was dragged up onto the deck as well. Though he appeared to be less badly tangled, Pidge could easily tell that this one was the less docile of the two, just judging by how his ears had pinned back. His eyes darted between the various staff members on the deck, as if he were trying to figure out if they posed any kind of threat. Then, he hissed, displaying sharp teeth that were back-lit by a faint purple glow from the inside of his mouth.

Pidge’s breath caught in her throat at the sight of them, and immediately she froze where she stood. These were undoubtedly the creatures from her dream… but they were much more violent than she remembered them being—and for a moment, she feared for the safety of the rest of the crew—but any animal could turn hostile like this when it felt threatened. This was why they had told her to strictly observe, because the rest of the staff knew how to handle situations like this and she didn’t. Near silence came over the deck, save for the soft ebb and flow of the waves and the growl rising in the larger creature’s throat as his claws scraped against the deck. The rest of the staff seemed to be as shocked as she was, not knowing how to react.

When the nearest staff member slowly approached, however, all hell broke loose. The larger of the two creatures bared his teeth and snarled before lunging, nearly taking a chunk out of the staff’s arm. Pidge was shoved to the side and told to stay back as—much to her horror—nearly every remaining member of the staff, including her own father, tried to dog pile the creature. They were attempting to pin him down to the deck, before he could potentially hurt someone.

“Watch his teeth, watch his teeth!”

“He’s going to take someone’s arm off at this rate!”

Pidge didn’t doubt that if the creature managed to latch onto someone’s arm, they wouldn’t be returning to shore with it.

It was terrifying to witness. This creature’s behavior was a stark contrast to what she remembered—the one in her dream had been very gentle and careful, and perhaps a little skittish. But if she had fallen into the water with this one…

In the chaos, she caught sight of the smaller creature—only for a second, but it was long enough to see that he had frozen in fear, much like she had. He watched with wide eyes as the staff tried to pin the larger creature to the deck. However, all of his thrashing had only served to dig the net more deeply into the scales of their tails, drawing blood. The physical exertion appeared to be getting to him, as he was beginning to huff and his movements became more sluggish. The large creature seemed to realize this too, as Pidge saw his eyes flash in the fading light as his head and ears darted around quickly.

He shrieked _something_ at the younger one—Pidge wasn’t sure if she would call it language, but it was clear that these creatures were communicating. The one that had just shrieked looked petrified and desperate as he tried to turn back around to go in the direction of the smaller one. However, before he could get very far, the staff managed to pin him. As his cheek hit the deck, he let out a higher pitched screech.

Then, a response came from further off—perhaps by a couple of miles?

Pidge found her head snapping in the direction of the sound, eyes widening as her brow furrowed in confusion. She wanted to observe the mermen more, of course, but given how violently the larger one was reacting, she wasn’t so sure that she was ready to meet a third one. She doubted that they would take too kindly to seeing their friends being manhandled by a group of human research staff. The rest of the staff appeared to be in awe, but she was just—surely… _surely_ there couldn’t have been more of them? For years, she had thought that the creatures were just a childhood fantasy, a dream she had had as a result of an overactive imagination, but now she saw that they actually existed. They were _real_ …

And she didn’t know what to make of it.

She held her breath as she looked back at her father, watching silently as he slowly approached the smaller one. He took care to keep out of his striking distance, even though he appeared to be too scared to move from his spot.

When her father began reaching out to check on the smaller creature’s tail, the larger one gave a warning snarl, even in spite of his huffing, as he began weakly struggling against the deck.

“Easy…” her father said calmly. “I just want to get a look at his tail, that’s all…”

Then, he carefully reached out to touch the smaller creature’s tail, where the net was digging in the deepest. Pidge could tell from here that he would need to be put in observation, after the net was removed. Both of them would, actually, in order to make sure that they made full recoveries. She hoped that they would adjust well to being kept in captivity in the interim—some animals handled it much more poorly than others, and given their apparent hostility…

“Prepare to sedate them,” her father said as he stood up again. “We need to be careful when we’re moving them…”

The larger one was tranquilized first, as he had started snarling and struggling weakly against the staff again. However, he was out with a single dart, and fell limp against the deck. The smaller one gave a startled sounding chirping sound and shakily moved forward. He nudged the larger one’s shoulder, trilling softly as his ears pinned back and twitched against the sides of his head. He was sedated a moment later, with far less hassle given his attention had been on his companion, rather than the staff.

Pidge took a couple of shaky breaths, trying to calm her nerves as she watched the staff begin preparing to head back to the institute. She reached out, catching hold of Shiro’s arm as he passed. He paused, looking down at her, and tilted his head in unspoken question of what she needed.

“Are they going to be alright?” she asked worriedly.

Shiro sighed and shrugged. “We’ll see once we get back, I guess… don’t worry, though, Pidge. We’re going to do everything we can for them…”

Pidge nodded and let him return to his work, moving out of the way towards the side of the boat. She stared out over the water, keeping a wary eye out for any sign of another creature—the one that had responded to the distress call…

But she saw nothing except for choppy waves and the sun dipping low on the horizon.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art in this chapter was done by [Meteorysh](http://meteorysh.tumblr.com/).

Almost as soon as they arrived back at the marine institute, Pidge was sent home. She wasn’t even allowed to get one last look at the mermen before they were taken away to have the net properly removed from their tails.

Pidge didn’t sleep very well that night—not for lack of trying. However, even though she woke up sluggish, she was eager to get to work, to see the mermen again and be able to observe them more closely. Once she was dressed, she grabbed a piece of toast and an energy bar, kissed her mother on the cheek, and was out the door before she had fully woken up.

When she got into work, she wasn’t expecting the first thing she heard to be _wailing_ , for lack of a better word. That was the only way that she could think to describe it. A high pitched whistling sound that was nothing short of devastated and distressed came from the back observation room—where they kept some of the animals that were going through rehabilitation. Her heart sank as she stopped outside the door. Silently, she listened as another wail rose from the room, followed by the sound of something slamming against the glass of its tank. The resulting _thunk_ was much louder than Pidge had been anticipating it would be. Then, there was silence for a couple of seconds before a weaker wail came from further off, in a different area of the aquarium. It was barely audible to Pidge’s ear, and came out drawn out and slurred, as if the creature making it were just waking up. Without hesitating any longer, Pidge dug her key card out of her pocket and opened the door, entering the observation room. Her hands were shaking, nerves causing her movements to become jerky and disorganized.

The merman in the tank was the larger one—and Pidge was still convinced that he was the older of the two. He was around twelve feet long from head to tail tip, with scales that were mostly a deep shade of purple. His tail’s markings appeared to mimic those of a blacktip reef shark—the prominent ones being on the tip of the dorsal fin just south of the small of his back, and lining the edge of the caudal fin at the end of his tail. In the fur of his torso were thin, striped markings that matched the ones on his ears, and she could pick out heavy scarring on his tail.

He looked very different from the merman she could vaguely remember seeing in her dream, though. This one was already big, but she remembered the one in her dream being huge, and much lighter in coloration. For a moment, she wondered if the child she had always seen in the dream would have been fully grown by now. If merpeople grew at a steady rate compared to that of humans—

And she stopped her line of thinking right there. _If_ merpeople… they should not have existed, but they clearly did, since this one was here in the observation room.

The merman didn’t notice her as she approached the tank to watch him swim. He propelled himself through the water with ease as he paced, moving back and forth from one end of it to the other—really, the tank was much too small for a creature of his size. Scales had begun to cloud the water, gathering in the sand at the bottom, as if he were molting. Up close, she could see the scarring on his tail, which pressed some of his scales in at off angles. Given the patterning of the scarring, he must have gotten caught in a net, but the lacerations had healed over on their own. However, she couldn’t see the full extent of the damage, due to bandaging covering the new injuries he had sustained when caught yesterday. She could also see another grouping of scars on one of his arms. She wondered if he had gotten those from a fight with a smaller shark species or a territory dispute with another merman.

When he finally _did_ notice her, he stopped swimming and his eyes flashed as he turned his head. He stared at her for little more than a second, eyes widening as he realized he was being watched. Then, he bared his teeth at her, in the makings of what she assumed was a threat display, before darting off and hiding in the thick plant life at the back of the tank. She could still make out the glow of his eyes through the gloom of his chosen hiding place, as well as the outline of his body, but the last foot and a half of his tail stuck out of the plants.

Then, she recognized the slight twitching of his tail as shaking, and realized it was out of fear.

“No, no, no,” she said hastily, even though she was sure that he couldn’t understand her. “It’s okay, we’re here to help you… you and your friend. You’re safe here.”

Even if he had understood, it didn’t stop his shaking. He bared his teeth again, and she saw faint light purple markings beginning to glow in his fur—perhaps as a fear response, or a result of his aggression? Her gaze softened as she watched him. If he was acting like this, she wondered what the younger one was acting like. It normally took the newer animals just a couple of days to become acclimated to their tanks and the human presence, and she hoped that was going to be the case with these ones too.

“Pidge!”

Matt’s voice came from the doors leading into the other observation room, and Pidge turned her gaze away from the merman’s tank. Her brother peered into the tank as he approached, brow furrowing into a frown.

“His mood hasn’t improved much, I see,” Matt noted, looking away to jot that down on the clipboard he held in hand. “Did he try charging you?”

“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Why do you ask?”

Matt sighed, looking more than a little exhausted. “He’s been trying to pick fights with the staff since he woke up. Dad and I agree that he doesn’t have malicious intentions, it’s all fear based, given the new environment…”

Pidge hummed softly in agreement. “How’s the other one doing?”

“Oh, he’s stable,” Matt assured her. “He just woke up, and his tail is going to be fine, so don’t worry about that… but I think the rest of the staff is reluctant to put them back together.”

Pidge frowned at her brother, crossing her arms over her chest. “Why?”

“Because Dad doesn’t want this one—” he motioned vaguely in the direction of the merman in the tank before them, “—to reject the younger one,” Matt explained as he flipped through a couple pages of the notes he had on his clipboard. “Dad is almost positive that they’re related, rather than an older male and a younger male involved in a territory dispute.”

Pidge’s gaze moved back to the merman. He was still huddled in the plant life—she caught sight of the glowing inside of his mouth as he bared his teeth, but he remained in his hiding place, watching them through narrowed eyes.

“So, he was acting so violently yesterday…”

“Because he was trying to protect his pup from what he perceived to be a threat, yes,” Matt said. “But hopefully, they won’t have to stay here long… just a couple of weeks before we tag and release them back into the bay.”

 _If_ the institute released them at all…

Pidge knew that it was entirely possible that the institute would want to keep the mermen indefinitely for observation and research purposes. This was a newly discovered species, after all, and there was no doubt in her mind that a _lot_ of people would want to come and study them. Of course, first they needed to actually recover from their ordeal, but after that, it was likely that they would be observed. Pidge thought that perhaps releasing them into an open ocean pen would suit them better so that they could at least be observed in their natural environment, rather than in the restrictive confines of aquarium tanks.

“Dad wants you to keep an eye on them,” Matt said.

Pidge looked at her brother in surprise. “What, _me_?” she asked, eyes widening. She hadn’t even considered the possibility that her father would trust her with something like this.

“Dad thinks that they might respond better to you, since you didn’t help subdue them yesterday,” Matt explained, as if it made perfect sense. “Also, you’re small, so they might not perceive you as a threat.”

Pidge snorted and punched her brother’s shoulder. “What does he want me to do?”

Matt handed over his clipboard, which she saw contained several sheets of notes he had taken already today—as well as a couple of messy pencil sketches in one of the margins that looked more cartoonish than anything. “Just take notes on them and their behavior, and check them against the ones I’ve already made,” Matt said, before motioning to the merman in the tank. “You should start with this one. The younger one is in the room through those doors, but he only just woke up, so he’ll probably be a little sluggish for a couple of hours.”

“Why not keep them in the same room, at least?” Pidge asked, before she motioned to the tank—and the scales that had gathered at the bottom. “It might help with their anxiety.”

“Take that up with Iverson,” Matt said with a shrug. “He’s the one who made that particular decision.”

—

For several hours, Pidge and the merman stared at one another—she didn’t move, and neither did he. Pidge found her new charge to be much more boring than she remembered mermen being. She had expected him to be curious about his surroundings, try to puzzle out where he was and why he was there… perhaps even try to escape. She knew that some animals actively tried—that was how she had ended up hunting after an octopus for the better part of an afternoon back at the beginning of the summer. She could see why the merman was acting this way, though, considering how terrified he must have been. The tank he was in didn’t offer much in the way of hiding places, and there was a lot less water than he was used to.

One thing she did observe, though, was that he’d occasionally break eye contact with her, turn his head in the direction of the other observation room, and let out a call that sounded similar to a high pitched whistle. His ears twitched as he listened, but he would relax visibly whenever the other merman called back from the other room. It was as if he were worried that he wouldn’t hear back. Pidge felt bad for them. She was certain her own father would have been greatly distressed if she or Matt were being purposefully separated from him like that.

Around noon, her father came to ask for her help with one of the other specimens, due to the institute being short-staffed that day, and she didn’t end up getting the opportunity to try and observe the younger merman until later that night when she was leaving. She entered the second observation room, and found that the lights had already been dimmed. Paying the darkness no mind, she approached the tank and peered inside, resting her hand against the glass as she tried to spot him. If he was anything like his father, though, he’d be keeping to the plant life at the back of the tank.

She could only make out brief flashes of glowing yellow eyes and purple bio-luminescence through the dark water as he darted around within the plants. Really, though, she should have known that attempting to observe him in the dark would be a useless endeavor—she would have to try again tomorrow, and perhaps then, he’d be a little more adventurous. As she turned to leave, however, she heard something shift through the water in the tank beside her, and out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of glowing purple. When she turned, her heart nearly stopped in her chest.

The younger merman was watching her from beyond the glass, _far_ closer than Pidge was comfortable with, even though he couldn’t actually reach her. It was so dark in the room now that she could only make out the outline of his body and his bio-luminescent markings. Pidge let out a sound that was similar to a yelp as she backed away, and in her haste to move, she slipped on a lingering puddle of water and fell to the ground.

The merman trilled softly and seemed to tilt his head to the side, though it was difficult to tell in the darkness.

Pidge tried to keep her breathing under control. The merman was _contained_ , and there was no hope of him reaching her through the glass. As she took slow and deep breaths, she tried to observe him, even though she was shaking. He was smaller than his father was, perhaps only about eight feet in length, but that was still much bigger than she was herself. His bio-luminescent markings formed patterns across his fur and scales, illuminating small portions of his body and casting a faint purple glow around the tank. Unlike his father, who had four markings on his chest, the younger merman had two markings on each side of his throat, running down to his sternum. They did share four whisker-like markings along their cheeks, as well as a bizarrely shaped marking on either side of their caudal fins that Pidge thought looked vaguely similar to a hook or blade of some kind.

And that was to say nothing of how his eyes glowed bright yellow in the darkness, or how the inside of his mouth glowed faint purple, back-lighting his sharp teeth when he opened his mouth to let out a confused sounding chirp. He reached up to rest one of his hands against the tank’s glass, and she heard the light scrape of his claws against it. Pidge had never felt so _small_ before. She was frozen in place, unable to look away.

Then, a nearby door opened and startled the merman—he darted away, back into his hiding spot amongst the plants, and it was as if he had never been there in the first place. Pidge took a couple more deep breaths, trying to steady herself before she hauled herself back up onto her feet.

“What were you doing on the floor, Pidge?” Matt called from the doorway. Amusement laced her brother’s voice, and he seemed to be trying to keep himself from laughing. “Did he scare you?”

“No,” Pidge said, shaking her head as she gazed back into the tank again—but she couldn’t find the merman’s shape amongst the plants again. “Not really.”


	4. Chapter 4

In the days following their arrival, Pidge found herself doing little else besides watching the mermen. At this point, it was basically her only job. They had plenty of animals to take care of, but unless they were particularly short staffed for the day—which happened on occasion just due to the size of the institute—then Pidge rarely helped with anything else anymore.

Taking care of the mermen certainly was different from how she had imagined being in charge of a large creature would be. She had known since she was young that it was most assuredly a _job_ to take care of animals. Her father wouldn’t have raised her any differently. She occasionally helped with dolphin feedings, giving them bucketfuls of fish after they were done being checked over by the veterinary staff. However, prior to her assignment with the mermen, she had mostly been put in charge of smaller creatures, such as an unruly octopus that she was sure had it out for her.

The mermen posed… a unique challenge.

For one thing, they were not nearly as active as she had imagined they’d be. Neither of them did very much, from what she had seen, aside from hiding away in the backs of their tanks. Shiro had been worried about their behavior, actually. Pidge could remember him mentioning the possibility that they were smarter than the rest of the staff were giving them credit for—even suggesting attempting to communicate with them.

Pidge was willing to admit that Shiro’s suggestion was an intriguing one, even if she didn’t try to speak with either of them as the week lengthened.

The mermen watched her about as much as she watched them, their behavior only deviating slightly between the two of them. The older one, for instance, continued to display aggressive behavior and picked fights with the rest of the staff—particularly with Iverson, should he put in an appearance. Sometimes, he even refused to eat, and Pidge recalled at least one instance where he had hit her in the back of the head with his dinner after lobbing it back out of the tank. He had appeared rather pleased with himself, too.

The younger one, on the other hand, rarely left the plants at the beginning, even when food was being offered. He did seem _curious_ , though, and Pidge would occasionally turn around to find his tail disappearing back into hiding, as if he had ventured out with the intention of observing her and then lost his nerve. However, he seemed to have slowly been gaining more confidence in his environment as the week progressed, leaving the safety of the plants more often. She had caught him following her along as she walked past the tank sometimes. She would hear him move through the water, see a flash of reddish-purple in her peripheral vision, but she could never catch more than a glimpse of his tail before he disappeared.

Until today, anyway—just a little over a week after he and his father had arrived at the institute. Today, when she turned around to look at him, he stayed put, watching her with those glowing yellow eyes.

Carefully, Pidge approached the tank. She moved slowly, even though she was excited to finally see him in the daylight. His eyes never left her, as if watching her for any signs of danger—perhaps he didn’t realize that there was very little she could do to him from beyond the glass. She stopped before him, and then reached up to rest her hand against the tank. He tilted his head at the gesture, brow furrowing. There was a tense moment, where all Pidge could hear was the gentle lull of water, before he warily approached the glass.

From Pidge’s own observations, the mermen seemed to be curious by nature, while also being exceedingly wary of their environment. Anything that was offered to them was first observed from a safe distance, before being cautiously approached. Then, upon confirmation the object wasn’t a threat, they’d try to figure out what it was for or what it did. She had tried giving them both puzzle boxes a couple of days prior, shortly after their arrival. It had been amusing to watch them fiddle with the things, trying to get to the fish she had shoved inside as a method of encouragement.

It was the first time she had seen this one up close for more than a second. The thick, concealing plant life at the back of his tank was more his home than the tank was in and of itself. Unless food was being offered, he was more than happy to remain hidden, with only the yellow glow of his eyes showing through the water. Pidge did wonder if it was a merman thing, to hide when they were in danger. They seemed as though they would be apex predators, given their sharp teeth and claws, but perhaps they were not. She would have no way of telling if she couldn’t observe them in their natural habitat, though, and she doubted that it’d be easy to find more of them.

She heard him let out a wary, but curious sounding trill. It was a noise she had heard his father make whenever he was being offered something by one of the staff. However, even if he was curious, the merman before her now still shook slightly—she could see it in the way his ears were flicking through the water, as if threatening to pin back against the sides of his head. But it seemed his curiosity was outweighing his fight-or-flight instinct. Pidge was thankful for that, or else she wasn’t sure if he ever would have gained the courage to approach her.

She was surprised when the young merman lightly rested his hand against the glass where hers lay. In doing so, he displayed both his claws and the purple webbing that extended up to about halfway between his second and third knuckles. Up this close, she could see how his upper body’s sleek, purple fur was a couple of shades darker than his father’s, even if he had several lighter stripes, including markings on his ears that matched. He also had lighter swirls on his ribs, and just below his shoulders on either side. And his eyes…

Pidge thought that the mermen had very intelligent looking eyes. She found herself getting lost in them sometimes, wondering what they were thinking…

Truly, she still felt like this was all just a dream, that they didn’t actually exist.

But here was this one, floating right in front of her.

“Pidge?”

At the sound of Shiro’s voice, the merman bolted, disappearing back into the thick, concealing plant life at the back of the tank. For a moment, Pidge just stood there, staring at the spot where the merman had been, wishing that Shiro hadn’t come in. It had ruined what she had hoped would be a good chance for observation. With a heavy sigh, she turned around to face Shiro as he approached.

“Did you need something, Shiro?” she asked, as she quickly jotted a couple of notes on her clipboard—making specific mention of the claws, webbing, and fur, but also of how the younger merman seemed to be gaining more confidence than he had shown previously.

“Sorry,” Shiro said, rubbing the back of his neck. “I didn’t mean to scare him off…”

“Yeah, well…” Pidge muttered. “He’s pretty skittish.”

“I don’t know, he seemed really interested in you,” Shiro said, smiling as he looked back into the tank. However, he didn’t seem too intent on hopelessly searching for the merman, who had no interest in being spotted. “It must make observing him easier when he doesn’t hide all day.”

Pidge gave a noncommittal hum, but said nothing.

“You don’t seem… surprised that they exist,” Shiro said, crossing his arms over his chest. His gaze moved back to her and he quirked a brow, tilting his head to the side.

Pidge frowned as her gaze shot up from her clipboard to meet his. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at him skeptically. Excepting her father and brother, she hadn’t mentioned her dream to anyone else before, not even Shiro—and she really needed to stop calling it that, because it clearly had never been a dream in the first place.

“Well, they _shouldn’t_ exist,” Pidge said, trying to remain nonchalant. “They’re supposed to be fairy tales.”

“Fairy tales have to come from somewhere, right?” Shiro asked, making an attempt at a joke as he cracked a smile.

Pidge snorted—he had a point, but she wasn’t really in the mood to discuss this further. She glanced back at the tank, hoping to catch another glimpse of the merman, but only catching sight of his eyes. “I guess,” she finally decided.

Shiro frowned at her lack of enthusiasm. “Have you seen one before?” he asked. There was a slight impatient undertone.

“Maybe,” she said vaguely, eyes narrowing even further as she peered at him suspiciously. Now, she was beginning to wonder if Shiro had come into contact with them before and just never said anything about it—which didn’t make much sense, since Shiro was also an advocate of learning and wouldn’t keep it to himself. “Why, have _you_?”

“Maybe,” Shiro said, matching her tone perfectly as he shrugged. “Anyway, I came to find you because I need your help with something tonight.”

Right, because _that_ wasn’t super vague. Pidge’s suspicious glare didn’t abate, but she withheld a sigh. “With what, Shiro?”

“Just meeting up with a friend, if you’re up for it,” Shiro said. “I think you’d like meeting him… he can probably help with some of your research.” He gestured in the direction of the merman’s tank, but didn’t elaborate.

Pidge’s own curiosity won out, in the end.

—

Once they were just beyond Blade Reef, and there was no sign of Shiro’s ‘friend’ in sight, Pidge began to get suspicious again. She had been out on a boat with Shiro plenty of times, so she wasn’t worried—but if he had been intending to take her scuba diving, she would’ve told him that it was the wrong time of day for it, and he could have just asked. She did not consider this area to be a prime place for meeting someone who could help her with her research into the mermen at all.

And the longer they waited, the more suspicious Pidge became. It was night now, with the moon slowly rising and casting a glow over the waves. Shiro had already turned the light on so that other boats would be able to spot them, but Pidge hadn’t seen or heard any other boats approaching them.

“Shiro—” she started. She definitely hadn’t pictured this when he had suggested talking to his friend—sitting out on the water, in the dark, in Shiro’s old motor-powered fishing boat.

“Don’t worry, he’s here,” Shiro said, motioning to the water.

Pidge turned, and spotted a dorsal fin poking above the waves as a creature glided alongside the boat. Her eyes widened as she saw a tail fin slap against the surface, propelling its owner back into the depths. Carefully, Pidge approached the side of the boat, peering over the edge, but she couldn’t see any sign of the creature. Her brow furrowed in confusion as she caught Shiro’s gaze.

“He thinks he’s being funny,” Shiro sighed, before lightly rapping his knuckles against the side of the boat.

Another splash came from behind her, on the port side of the boat, and when Pidge turned, she came face to face with another merman. She shrieked in surprise, scrambling back and nearly slipping as she bumped into Shiro. The merman gave a confused sounding trill around the fish he held in his jaws, ears twitching as he looked at her in surprise.

“Pidge, it’s fine,” Shiro assured her. “That’s just Ulaz.”

_Just_ Ulaz?

This mermen looked like he was even larger than the adult they had back at the institute, though she couldn’t be certain without seeing his tail. She almost asked why Shiro thought that visiting a merman in the wild—in a _motor-powered fishing boat_ —was a good idea, but stopped herself. Shiro didn’t look concerned at all… although given he had seemed to name the merman, it meant he was familiar with him.

So, she’d give him the benefit of the doubt. Taking a couple of deep, calming breaths, she turned her gaze back onto their visitor. The merman half-pulled himself over the edge of the boat, causing it to tip a bit, but also allowing her to see some of his markings more clearly—light lavender fur with white swirls on his neck, arms, and ribs that matched those on his head.

And Pidge was hit by a sense of recognition.

She _knew_ this merman. He was the one who had saved her when she had been a child. She was silent, watching as he carefully set the decently sized fish he held in his jaws on the floor of the boat before nudging it in Shiro’s direction.

“Thank you, Ulaz,” Shiro said as he took the fish. Then, he motioned to Pidge. “This is Pidge… she works at the institute with me.”

Ulaz’s ears perked up and twitched as he got a good look at her. He seemed to recognize her as well, though Pidge found that a little odd, since he had saved her almost fifteen years ago. Then, he surprised her further by speaking—Pidge was thankful she had been sitting or else she might have fallen out of the boat.

“ _Kay-tee_ ,” Ulaz said.

“He knows you?” Shiro asked, eyes widening a fraction in surprise when he looked at her.

“He… he saved me when I was a kid,” Pidge said, voice faint—she was still having a little trouble processing all of this.

Ulaz said nothing else before he dove back into the water, tail fin slapping against the surface as he disappeared. He left in such a hurry that Pidge worried for a moment that she had done something to offend him in some way. However, she knew that if she had, he would have made his feelings abundantly clear, as the older merman’s behavior back at the institute showed.

“Where is he going?” she asked as she looked over the edge into the water where Ulaz had disappeared. “And how can he talk?”

“He just _can_ , Pidge… and he’s going to get you a fish, most likely,” Shiro said simply. “I think it’s a merman thing… he brings me fish every single time I meet up with him. He explained to me once that not all members of his pod go hunting on a given day, so they always bring back some for those who didn’t… or he thinks I’m underfed.”

“ _You_?” Pidge snorted.

Shiro shrugged, seeming as amused as she was by the idea. “Either way, just take whatever he gives you, and thank him. He knows what _thank you_ means.”

Pidge frowned at that, not knowing what to make of it. She knew that Shiro had been subtly suggesting that the mermen they had in the tanks back at the institute were smart and she had entertained the idea that they had sentience. However, she had only suspected they had an intelligence level similar to that of dolphins. She hadn’t been prepared for this. She wondered why, if they could speak, neither of the mermen at the institute had even tried to speak to her or one of the other staff members. Perhaps they weren’t as fluent as Ulaz was, or perhaps they were too scared to?

Whatever the case, the fact that they could speak was _fascinating_ …

“How did you find him?” Pidge asked. Ulaz was the only merman she had seen that willingly approached humans and gave them fish. Granted, her sample size was rather small, but she was surprised that he seemed rather curious about humans—and Shiro had implied earlier that he visited with Ulaz often. She had been under the impression that mermen were shy creatures who didn’t want to be noticed by humans, and yet Ulaz willingly met up with Shiro even when he didn’t have to.

She couldn’t comprehend how Shiro could have run into a merman when there hadn’t been sightings… _ever_ really.

“Oh, he saved me several years ago,” Shiro said as he began gutting the fish Ulaz had brought him. “We still meet up to chat. I teach him English, sometimes bring him trinkets… he’s gotta have at least half a dozen spy glasses by now—I’ll have to take you diving sometime. He’d be willing to show you the cave he keeps all his stuff in.”

Pidge hesitated, though. The idea of getting into the water with one of the mermen was unnerving, especially when Ulaz looked to be about fifteen feet long, at a rough estimate. “Shiro, I don’t think—”

“He’s perfectly safe,” Shiro said, waving his hand dismissively. “I go swimming with him all time.”

Ulaz returned before Pidge could try to provide any kind of counter-argument. He dropped the fish in his jaws onto the deck and nudged it in Pidge’s direction. Then, he watched her expectantly, ears perking and twitching as he waited for her to take it. She thanked him quietly when she did, before handing it over to Shiro so that he could gut it for her. Shiro tossed the head of his already gutted fish in Ulaz’s direction, which Ulaz caught in his jaws before easily snapping it clean in half.

“So, Ulaz, how have you and your mate been?” Shiro asked casually.

“Oh, you have a mate?” Pidge said, tilting her head. She had so many questions about their customs, but she knew she had to hold off for just a little bit, or risk coming off as rude—and thus, stilting any chances of learning to begin with.

Ulaz lightly tapped the necklace around his neck with a claw. The necklace appeared to be made of around two dozen scales, fastened together. “Thace,” he said. However, his ears drooped a moment later. Even when Shiro offered him the second fish’s head, he refused to eat it.

“Something wrong, Ulaz?” Shiro asked worriedly. “Normally, I can’t get you to shut up about him…”

“Gone…” Ulaz managed after hesitating. Pidge noticed how he seemed to stumble over his words, even if he had understood exactly what Shiro had asked him. “I looked… couldn’t find…” In between his words, Pidge noticed how he’d make soft trills or clicks in the back of his throat—in a way, it reminded her of when humans sometimes said ‘um’ while attempting to think of how to finish a sentence. Once he was finished speaking, he then produced a second necklace, which he had fastened around his wrist in a makeshift bracelet. Pidge couldn’t quite make out the scales, but they appeared to be different from the ones on Ulaz’s necklace.

Shiro looked concerned at that. “What about your pup?”

Ulaz just mutely shook his head. “Taken together, I think…”

“Is that their necklace?” Pidge asked. “Your mate’s, I mean?”

Ulaz nodded and motioned her closer, before unfastening the necklace from around his wrist. Gently, he pressed it into her palm, tapping the necklace with a claw. Looking at the scales again, Pidge noticed that they looked like they could have come from Ulaz’s tail—they were a similar shade of light lavender, with the occasional stray fleck of an off-shade of white, like the striated markings Ulaz had. She glanced back at the scales on the necklace around Ulaz’s neck and found those scales were deeper royal purple, although some of them appeared to split into a lighter shade of lavender.

She dug out her phone and scrolled through until she found one of the only good photos she had managed to get of the adult merman back at the institute.

“Is this Thace?” she asked, turning her phone for him to see.

Ulaz’s entire expression _immediately_ perked up and he chirped excitedly, reaching out for her phone. Against Pidge’s better judgment, she handed it over to him. She just hoped if he tried to take off with it, she could catch him before he dunked her phone in the water.

“So, the mermen back at the institute are Ulaz’s mate and pup, and you didn’t tell me?” Pidge asked, frowning at Shiro.

“I… I didn’t know…” Shiro said, blinking in surprise. “I’ve never met either of them before. Thace doesn’t like Keith coming up to the surface—”

“Keith?” Ulaz cut in, holding Pidge’s phone for her to take again. “Kay-tee have Keith too?” He waved the phone at Pidge and she swiped past a couple more pictures of Thace to the one she had managed to take of Keith—one where he was revealing his sharp teeth, and she had taken it a split second before he had disappeared again. However, Ulaz seemed to be placated by it, as a happy purr rose in his throat.

Pidge was just glad that she could provide him with some kind of peace of mind. Even if she had a boatload of problems to deal with in the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Now that Pidge knew their names, she had decided that she should attempt to speak with the mermen. If she could talk to them, she might be able to attempt to explain their situation—tell them that Ulaz knew they were safe and no harm was going to come to them. She hoped that it’d be easier to get their attention if she called them by name.

She remembered how she had frequently heard Thace letting out high pitched whistles, but Keith never responded to them. Based on that, she assumed that Thace had been trying to reach Ulaz and the rest of their pod, but had been unable to do so. While the institute was on the water, she didn’t think that Thace’s calls could reach all the way to the outside, and the reef was still a couple of miles away after that. She also doubted that Ulaz would be so foolish as to venture that close to the marine institute, no matter what the circumstance. He couldn’t very well help his mate and pup if he were captured alongside them while trying to get information.

From what she had seen, the only human Ulaz seemed to trust was Shiro—and now, herself, she supposed, if only because he had met her before and she was a friend of Shiro’s.

When she came into work the next morning, she considered her options as she stopped in front of Thace’s tank. Ulaz had left the bonding necklace with her, so that she could return it to Thace. She thought that perhaps it could help with some of his anxiety if he had something familiar, but he was hidden near the far side of his tank, curled up with his back to her. She couldn’t tell if he was sleeping or not, and she didn’t want to disturb him—doing so would make attempting to speak with him a counterproductive exercise… if he even considered her worth the time, anyway.

She bypassed Thace’s tank entirely and went into the second observation room to see if she could speak with Keith instead. When she entered the room, she caught a brief glimpse of the glow of his eyes in the plants before it disappeared. He seemed to be observing her from afar, and he showed no signs of leaving his hiding place.

“Keith?” she tried, approaching the glass and placing her palm against it as she had done the previous evening. She saw him poke his head out of the plants, ears standing alert as he peered at her curiously—perhaps he was skeptical about how she knew his name. Then, he disappeared again. She frowned, watching the plants shift along with his movements through the water.

Perhaps it would be easier if he could come to the surface and try to talk to her? Carefully, she scaled up onto the feeding platform that overlooked the tank, a couple of feet above the water. She was cautious as she walked out onto it, taking care to keep her hand on the guard rail. Her father had warned her several times since she had started working here that she had to be careful when going out onto the platforms—especially recently, given their newest guests. While she had gone out onto the platforms to feed the mermen, or to give them the puzzle cubes they seemed to enjoy playing with, she had never stayed there long. She certainly hadn’t expected to stand out on one while attempting to get a merman to speak with her.

She leaned over, keeping a firm grip on the guard rail as she peered into the water, trying to spot Keith. However, she would only spy his shape darting around beneath her for a moment before she lost sight of him. Then, she wasn’t able to find him again until she saw a flash of reddish-purple in her peripheral vision. It was like an aggravating game of cat and mouse.

“Keith,” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

He paused beneath the surface for a brief moment and seemed to look up at her—but he darted away again, and she lost track of him. Hesitantly, Pidge leaned out further over the water. She considered that perhaps she hadn’t said his name right, and so he’d have no reason to respond to her—but she had heard Ulaz’s pronunciation very clearly. Keith just wasn’t reacting how she had anticipated he would. For all his curiosity, Keith seemed perfectly content with not coming out to talk to her, even though she had been under the impression that he was interested in getting to know her a little better.

And annoyance flared up in her chest because now he didn’t want to talk to her? He had only been following her around every chance he got, watching her from various hiding places… did that moment last night meaning _nothing_ to him?

“Keith?” she tried again, annoyance leaking into her tone as she leaned over further. “Could you come out and talk to me… _please_?”

Silence was her only answer—he was darting around under the surface, too quickly for her eyes to track. As she was forced to lean out further and further over the water, her father’s warnings about ‘safety first’ lingered in the back of her mind, but she didn’t want to listen to him right now. Not when she was _this_ close to being able to finally learn something—about Keith himself or about his culture—by just _asking_ him… or she could at least provide some kind of assurance that he and Thace were perfectly safe and they’d eventually be released.

“Keith!” she said, more exasperated this time as she leaned out even further. “Kei— _whoa_!”

Really, she should have known she would fall in.

Before she had much of a chance to react, however, she felt a pair of arms wrapping around her waist. She broke the surface, sputtering and coughing as she tried to catch her breath, regain her bearings. Then, her fingers dug into the fur of Keith’s arms, and her head snapped in his direction. Their gazes locked and she froze entirely. However, Keith didn’t appear to have any intention of harming her. He looked to be just as startled as she was sure she did. That did not stop him from sniffing her, though. Slowly, so as not not to startle him, she turned her head away and averted her gaze.

He nudged his nose against her temple, letting out a soft chirping sound before he huffed, blowing a puff of air into her face. It was then she realized that he was checking her over to make sure she was alright. It was a bizarre invasion of her personal space, but she knew it was unlikely that he realized that—mermen appeared to have a different definition of _personal space_ than humans did.

“Let go of me… _please_ ,” she managed to say. Though she tried to keep her tone as patient as she could, she still squirmed in his grasp, in an attempt to get free.

Keith stared at her for a moment before his brow furrowed as he tilted his head to the side. However, without any further prompting, he let her go. As soon as he had, she hastily swam back over to the feeding station. She managed to grab onto the edge, but found it was difficult to pull herself back up onto it.

Curse her short arms.

She glanced back over her shoulder at Keith and found that he was still watching her, face half concealed under the water. His ears perked straight up when their gazes met, but he didn’t say anything to her.

“Could you…” she trailed off and motioned up to the feeding station.

Keith nodded and swam forward—slower this time as if _he_ were attempting to keep from startling _her_. She felt the press of his claws through her shirt, but he was very gentle with her as he helped boost her up. Once she was out of his reach, she tucked her feet underneath of her and took a couple of deep breaths in an attempt to calm herself. She could still feel him watching her, though. When she looked down to the water again, he was still there, half hidden as he treaded water—could it even be considered _treading?_ she wondered.

And he was holding her glasses, turning them over in his hands curiously as he stared at them. Lightly, he tapped one of the lenses with his claw, letting out a curious sounding trill. Then, he put them on and looked around the room as a happier sounding chirp left his throat.

She burst into a fit of giggles, trying to stifle it behind her hand. “Keith, can I have those back, please?”

His ears pinned back, but he handed them over without any further arguments. “Thank you,” he said, sounding very convinced that he was using that phrase correctly when he was not. He didn’t seem to know what he had actually said, but his ears perked back up when he noticed her giggles had begun again.

“Wrong?” he guessed, tilting his head to the side.

Pidge wiped her eyes as she nodded. “I’m supposed to say that,” she explained. “Because you helped me—” As she said this, she motioned first to him and then to herself. “After I say _thank you_ , you say _you’re welcome_.”

Keith let out a soft trill in the back of his throat as his ears twitched. His gaze narrowed into a look of determination before he began sounding out the words on his tongue. “You… you’re weeel… welcome?” he tried, tilting his head to the side as he looked at her for approval.

She laughed again and nodded. “Yes, that’s right.”

It was interesting—no, _fascinating_ —that Keith seemed to understand English, even if he couldn’t speak it all that well. Perhaps he had learned from listening to humans when they talked near the water. While it was true that he was skittish, he was also extremely curious, so long as nobody realized he was there. Or perhaps Ulaz had taught him, since Ulaz seemed to have a pretty decent grasp of the English language.

“Keith, can I ask you something?” Pidge asked, tilting her head to the side.

His ears gave a slight twitch of interest and he nodded as he watched her, waiting in anticipation.

“Did you ever observe humans?” she asked.

“Ob… observe?” Keith frowned at her—it appeared that was the only word in her sentence that he couldn’t comprehend.

“Y’know… watching them,” Pidge explained. She suspected that it was more complex than that. Perhaps Ulaz had been teaching Keith whatever Shiro had taught him, which was much more likely than Keith sitting beneath docks and the boardwalk and just listening to humans speak. That would have been a very boring method of learning, not to mention difficult.

Keith understood that perfectly, and he nodded quickly. “Papa and me.”

Ah. So Ulaz took him to shore—and yet, Shiro had never met Keith before. Ulaz seemed to know better than to bring Keith to meetings with humans personally, especially since Thace clearly didn’t like them… and Pidge remembered the necklace she had in her pocket.

“Well, I met Ulaz last night,” Pidge said, as she pulled the bonding necklace out of her pocket. Lightly, she ran her fingers over the scales—which had definitely come from Ulaz’s tail. They were rough under her fingertips, as well as durable. It seemed as though mermen shed their scales pretty easily, given the state of Thace’s tank. However, Pidge was almost certain that Thace’s scale loss could be more attributed to his anxiety over the current situation—and possibly his small tank size—than anything else. She knew that Thace would be moved into a somewhat larger tank soon, and she hoped that would help. Still, she wondered how often mermen shed their scales out in the wild, where they were under less stress.

“This is Thace’s?” Pidge asked, holding out the necklace for Keith to see, and he nodded quickly as his expression brightened. “Ulaz said he lost it… do you think he’ll want it back?”

Keith tilted his head at the suggestion and let out a displeased sounding trill, as if to question why she was asking _at all_ , as if the answer should have been _obvious_.

Pidge sighed, brushing her still dripping wet hair out of her eyes. “They’re important, right?” She was wary of giving it back on the off chance that someone took it from him again during a medical examination. Then, there wasn’t much chance of Thace getting it back.

Keith seemed to mull over her words, ears twitching as he tried to think of a response for her—probably attempting to piece together what words he _did_ know so that he could properly get his point across. “Im… important,” he finally said. “Joins them.” As he said this, he brought his hands together, clasping them.

“Yes, I got that,” Pidge assured him. “I just don’t want him to lose it. Do you understand?”

Keith’s ears drew back. “You care?”

“Of course I do,” Pidge said, frowning at him. “If my mom lost her wedding ring—” When she noticed his confused look, she tried to think of a different analogy. “If my mom lost… one of _these_ , she’d be sad. Thace will be happy to have this back?”

His ears were twitching against the sides of his head as he thought, and he averted his gaze. It was harder for him to piece together a response this time, and when he did speak, his words were slow and deliberate, in order to ensure she understood. “Ask him,” he finally suggested.

“That’s a good idea,” Pidge said. “I’ll do that later, and—”

“Thank you,” Keith said suddenly, cutting her off.

Pidge looked at him in surprise. “What?”

“You care,” Keith explained as best as he could, smiling to show off his sharp teeth.

She was silent for a moment, before she smiled in return. “You’re welcome.”

—

She talked to Keith for a little while longer after that, trying to get a grasp on what he knew—she tried not to get too over-excited and ask him something he might not have an answer for. She only said goodbye because she would be off shift soon and needed to give Thace his necklace back before she left for the evening.

Getting Thace’s attention proved to be much more difficult than getting Keith’s had been. For one thing, he wasn’t all that curious about humans to begin with. For another, he hadn’t been in the best of moods the last two weeks. As such, she was much more careful this time around than she had been with Keith.

She stood, peering over the edge of the platform as she tried to catch sight of Thace in the water. It did not appear as though he had moved more than a couple of inches since she had checked on him before going to speak with Keith. He was still hiding in the plants of his tank, with only the end of his tail peeking out. Over the last two weeks, his mood hadn’t improved like Pidge had been hoping it would once he had gotten used to the environment—if anything, it had gotten much worse. While Thace had never been the most active, Pidge had noticed how he had started moving less and less. Some of the staff through that perhaps he was finally mellowing out, but Pidge could only think about how he was very likely depressed.

Thankfully, it seemed like Keith wasn’t as affected by their separation—while she had been speaking with him, Thace had called once, and Keith had quickly responded. When asked what Thace was doing, Keith had tried to explain—as well as he was able—that Thace always did that to check on his whereabouts, even when they were home.

In this case, Pidge assumed that ‘home’ meant Marmora Bay.

At mention of his home, Keith’s mood had rapidly deteriorated—he had still listened to her questions, but his ears had drooped and he had seemed unable to focus. Pidge had eventually excused herself. It seemed that mermen were highly social creatures—not unlike humans—so to be separated from others of their kind and held in too-small tanks without any way of contacting their loved ones…

Pidge hoped that they would be released soon—but it would still be a while, as Keith’s tail needed more time. His lacerations were still healing over. Thace’s injuries had been less substantial, so he would be ready to be released first, but Pidge assumed that they would be released together.

“Thace?” she tried, enunciating his name clearly, as she had done with Keith—just to make sure he actually heard her.

She waited long enough that she thought that he hadn’t heard her, but then she noticed his tail flick and his head poke out of the plants. He was at the surface a moment later, just close enough that she could see his eyes. He stared at her skeptically, and didn’t even try to talk to her like both Ulaz and Keith had when she had spoken to them.

“Um… hi, I’m Pidge,” she said—nervousness leaked into her voice before she could stop it. Unlike Keith, Thace had never shown any interest in interacting with her before, and even though she knew he likely wasn’t as violent as he had been acting, she wanted to be careful to keep from making him uncomfortable. “You’re probably wondering how I know your name—”

Thace seemed to be largely uninterested in what she was saying, though, as he dove back under the water, slapping his tail fin against the surface. Pidge quickly reeled back to avoid the spray and groaned as she started trying to dry her glasses _again_ using her still somewhat damp shirt. However, she wasn’t offended—if anything, she could consider this a good reaction. He hadn’t tried hissing at her, so he was only mildly annoyed with her.

Time for her to be more annoying.

“Hey, Thace!” she said again, carefully leaning over the edge as she tried to get his attention again. However, it appeared that he was ignoring her, hiding amongst the plants again—and he definitely wasn’t going to come out this time unless she made it worth his while. Lightly, she tugged the necklace out of her pocket and ran her thumb over the scales again. She had to get this back to him—or at least, ask if he wanted it back or offer to hold onto it for him for safekeeping until he and Keith were released back into the bay. Then she could return it to him, with no risk of one of the staff accidentally taking what essentially acted as his wedding ring.

“I talked to Ulaz…” she said.

Thace’s head popped out of the water again, ears perking up and twitching. He still regarded her skeptically, but he also seemed to realize that if she knew Ulaz by name, then either she was telling the truth, or they had somehow managed to catch him and bring him to the institute. Thace glanced around, looking at the other tanks in the room that sat empty, and then he gave an experimental call. Keith responded a moment later, which seemed to alleviate some of Thace’s worry, but his ears only relaxed when Ulaz didn’t respond.

“Where?” he finally said.

“Outside,” Pidge said. “Shiro—”

Thace’s skeptical look didn’t abate, and he didn’t recognize the name.

“Uh… big guy, with the silver arm,” Pidge said, holding one of her hands above her head. “He and I went out to the reef to meet with Ulaz.”

Thace’s ears gave a subtle twitch at the word reef—perhaps it was a word he recognized. However, he still stared at her warily, as if he were waiting for her to announce that they had turned Ulaz into fish stew and that was why he wasn’t responding to Thace’s call. However, when Pidge held out the bonding necklace and allowed him to see as it hung from her fingers, his gaze softened considerably as he recognized it.

“Ulaz said you lost this… when you were being reeled in,” Pidge explained, lowering the necklace for him to take—which he did, very eagerly. He stared at the necklace, lightly running his fingers over the scales as his shoulders relaxed. And then he looked up at her again and offered a smile.

“Thank you,” he said, before putting the necklace on.

“You’re welcome,” Pidge said, returning the smile.

“Sorry about—” he cut off, letting out a frustrated hiss as he appeared to misplace the word he was looking for. “Fish. Head,” he finally said and then mimed throwing something.

It took Pidge a moment to realize he was trying to apologize for lobbing a fish at her once. “Oh, we’re cool,” she said.

Thace tilted his head. “Coooool?”

However, before Pidge could respond, there was a sudden shout behind her. Thace bolted, disappearing back beneath the water. Pidge turned, half rising back to her feet, to see her father standing at the bottom of the ladder.

“Katherine Holt! Get down here this instant!” he demanded, sounding far more worried than he was angry. She spared only a brief glance back to the spot where Thace had been before she hastily climbed down the ladder.

“What on earth did you think you were doing?” her father questioned. “I told you not to get too close to them!”

While Pidge knew that her father was just worried about her and her safety, she felt that she could handle herself—and now, she was well aware that neither Thace or Keith were dangerous as long as they were respected. Keith was skittish as all hell, but he had never once tried to hurt anyone. Thace was a different story, but the way Pidge saw it, he had just been defending himself.

“They seem more scared than vicious to me, dad,” she sighed. Her words had more venom than she had actually meant for them to have, but at this point, she was tired and she really couldn’t have cared less. “Both of them are actually really nice if you bother to pay them an ounce of respect.”

“You can never be too careful around wild animals,” her father sighed, running his hand over his face. “Promise me that you’ll be more careful.”

Pidge knew that her father meant well, and he had no ill intent towards Thace and Keith—she doubted he had even considered that they could possess the same level of intelligence that humans did. She had to stop herself from correcting him, from telling him that they had a pod— _a mate and father_ —waiting for them outside in the bay that they needed to get back to. It was a discussion for when she had a better argument for allowing them some form of rights within the institute.

So, she remained silent, and mutely nodded.


	6. Chapter 6

Over the next week and a half, Pidge worked with Keith on his English—he was intuitive, and had been picking it up rather quickly. During his lessons, he’d answer questions she had about mermen and their lives. Through these questions, she learned that there were other mermen still out in the bay besides Ulaz. The only names she could remember were those of the leader of the pod, Kolivan, and Antok, who was a close friend of Ulaz and Thace—and had been Keith’s pupsitter when he was younger. There were others as well, but those were the ones that Keith spoke of the most. The pod apparently lived throughout the waters of Marmora Bay, inhabiting caves under the surface. Listening to Keith speak of his home life was a fascinating way to spend her downtime, and he had already answered so many questions that she had had. While Thace wasn’t nearly as talkative, if she asked politely, he could fill in gaps that Keith had left in his explanations.

Until Shiro had invited her, she hadn’t considered she’d actually go swimming with a merman, though. She was planning on treading carefully, and Shiro had made it clear that they were to follow Ulaz’s cues. While she knew that Ulaz wasn’t going to hurt her, she still worried about running into the other members of his pod. Over the last week and a half, she had happened upon Ulaz multiple times as he searched the cove for shells, but she had never seen any other mermen on the surface.

“How long are we going to be down there for?” Pidge asked. She was already in her wetsuit, watching as Shiro checked their oxygen tanks over.

“Oh, we’ll only be a little while,” Shiro said. “Ulaz wanted to show you his collection—remember, he keeps everything in a cave down there.”

Pidge snorted in amusement. “So he has more than spy glasses?”

Shiro gave a bark of laughter. “I’m pretty sure he has a destroyed smart phone down there,” he said, before he turned his head to meet her gaze. “You brought a present, right?”

Pidge nodded quickly, before producing a couple of old forks from inside of her backpack. They were about as shiny as she could have made them, seeing as they were some of the not-so-nice ones that her mother was less likely to miss. “I figured he might like something pretty,” she said, grinning at him.

Shiro looked first at her, quirking a brow, before his eyes darted down to the forks in her hand. “Pidge, he’s not Ariel.”

“I just wanted to see what he’d do with them!” Pidge argued.

When Ulaz’s head finally popped out of the water, he let out a soft chirp in greeting. He didn’t have any fish offerings for them this time around, but he didn’t _always_ give fish when he saw a human. Many times when Pidge saw him, it was around midday, so Pidge assumed that when he gave fish was more associated with the time of day, than with an incessant need to feed his human pod members.

“Hey, Ulaz,” Shiro greeted him. “Give us a minute, I’m almost done double-checking this equipment.”

Ulaz gave a soft trill of understanding, ears flicking as he watched Pidge approach him. She crouched down beside him and then held out the forks for him to take.

“Here,” she said. “These were the shiniest ones I could find…”

Ulaz tilted his head to the side and reached out to take one of the forks from her. He carefully turned it over in his hands, eyes narrowing, though he did seem _very_ curious about the object she had just given him. “Normally white,” he said. Pidge assumed he was referring to plastic ones that ended up in the water somehow after being discarded by locals and tourists alike. “And broken,” he added. His ears twitched against the sides of his head as he looked at her again, as if for some kind of explanation.

“Those were the plastic ones. Food stalls and places like that given them out with food ‘cause they’re cheaper to produce and able to be thrown away after they’re used,” Pidge explained. “But these are made with metal, so they’re more sturdy!”

Ulaz made a curious sounding chirp as he turned his attention back to the fork and watched the light catch on the metal in the midday sun. His claws scraped lightly against the surface of the fork and his ears appeared to give a slight twitch at the sound. “What is it?” he finally asked.

Shiro heaved a sigh before Pidge could respond. She turned her head as Ulaz’s ears perked up in surprise. “Pidge, I swear to god if you tell him those are called _dinglehoppers_ , I’m throwing you into the water.”

Ulaz blinked a couple of times. “What is—”

“Never mind,” Shiro said. “It’s a reference to a movie. Come on, Pidge. We’re eating time and Ulaz probably has to go hunting soon.”

—

It had been a while since Pidge had gone diving with equipment—she was certified and everything, but she just hadn’t found the time. She snorkeled frequently around the shores, though, just to watch the fish and hunt for shells.

Upon entering the water, Ulaz carefully swam around her, letting out soft clicking noises. After making sure she was comfortable, he turned his attention back up to the boat, watching shadows dance along the surface of the water. His ears perked up after a moment, and she heard him give a sharp whistle before he darted out of the way so that Shiro could come into the water. After he became submerged, Shiro signed to her, asking if she was okay, and Pidge quickly gave a sign of affirmation.

The swim to the cave was a short one, as it seemed as though Shiro had anchored the boat near where they needed to be. Along the way, Pidge kept careful watch of their surroundings, though. There were fish swimming along the bottom, around the reefs and amongst the coral—she picked out a few of starfish, some sea cucumbers, as well as a smaller species of octopus. There were also a couple of sharks patrolling the bottom. They darted off when Ulaz swam past, seeming to be startled by his presence, even if he didn’t them pay any mind. Pidge paused to watch the sharks swim away, until Shiro tugged lightly on her arm to get her to start following him and Ulaz again.

When they finally reached Ulaz’s cave, he disappeared inside. While Shiro was quick to follow after their merman guide, Pidge lingered around outside for just a moment more. The ‘cave’ was little more than a clearing in between a couple of huge boulders, although it did appear to be partially enclosed. Further out to sea, she could make out the shape of a shipwreck, which she knew to be an older wreck. There was a second, smaller vessel within throwing distance of the cave, which seemed to have some crustaceans hiding out underneath of it. The reef wasn’t that far off, either.

When she finally entered the cave, she found that it was large inside, with a dividing wall made up of plants closer to the back. There appeared to be a large nest back there, made out of plant life. She could pick out shed scales lingering on the floor, as well as some fish bones—from a large fish. It was relatively open outside of the nesting area in the back. Perhaps mermen liked feeling the current and found it calming. She made a mental note to bring it up at some point.

All in all, though, the cave looked to be a cozy place for a family of three to live.

Anywhere there was a pocket in the walls, Ulaz had shoved some kind of trinket into it. These ranged from spy glasses like the one she had seen Shiro give him the first night she had met him, to other things, such as figurines that looked like they could have come from near the boardwalk. She suspected he had found them after a tourist had dropped them into the water by mistake and then forgotten them. She also spotted the smart-phone that Shiro had mentioned. The screen was split, as if it had been dropped onto a bunch of rocks on the way down, and she doubted it would ever be in working order again—even if it hadn’t been waterlogged. Why he had decided to keep _that_ , she would never have guessed.

She also noticed a couple of other pockets that held purple shells, like the ones she had seen Ulaz collecting when she ran into him near the shore.

Ulaz appeared to be trying to find a place to put the forks she had given him. He moved more quickly than one might have assumed he was able, given his size, but he took care with his tail as he darted between spots in the cave walls. He finally settled on a spot just above the spy glasses, carefully arranging them to his liking. Evidently, collecting human trinkets was a hobby that Ulaz took _very_ seriously.

Once the forks had been put on display, Ulaz began moving about the rest of his collection, as if he were looking for something in particular. He returned to her, holding out what looked like a small, carved figurine—while it had become eroded over time from being in the water, she could still tell that it was supposed to be a dog. Ulaz whistled and tilted his head to the side, as if asking if she liked it. Pidge quickly nodded, unable to speak through the scuba mask and unsure if Ulaz knew diving hand signals. Ulaz’s ears perked as he smiled, and then he went back over to another section of his collection and started digging through it. She had been warned by Shiro well in advance that Ulaz liked sharing his trinkets, but she hadn’t expected him to start bringing her anything that was even _remotely_ related to the figurine.

She accepted everything he gave her, of course, but she eventually had to begin handing some of it off to Shiro as her hands became full. It quickly became apparent that Ulaz had a _lot_ of items that he thought she might like, since she had already handed off about a dozen things to Shiro before it looked like Ulaz was even close to finishing going through everything.

A shadow passed over the cave, and Pidge heard a much deeper sounding trill. When she looked up, she found herself nearly nose to nose with by far the _largest_ creature she had ever seen. He was a merman, same as Ulaz, but his fur and scales were far darker, verging on black. If he was surprised to see humans, he gave no indication—rather, he tilted his head to the side as his gaze narrowed. He regarded them warily, but he didn’t appear to have the intention to rush them. Instead, he turned his gaze to Ulaz, and let out a confused sounding whistle in order to get his attention. Ulaz responded in an almost dismissive manner, even waving his tail fin as if to shoo the new merman away.

Pidge watched the exchange with trepidation, slowly moving back and bumping shoulders with Shiro. However, he didn’t seem to be concerned by the appearance of the new merman. Carefully, Shiro tried to balance what he was holding in one arm so he could make some attempt at a greeting, which the merman responded to halfheartedly before he disappeared back into the open ocean again. Ulaz turned his head then, appearing to be listening, given the twitch of his ears. He began re-collecting his trinkets from them, carefully reorganizing them in their respective display spots. Only once he was satisfied with their positioning did he lead Shiro and Pidge back to their boat.

The other merman followed at a safe distance—he seemed almost as wary of Pidge as she was of him. In any other circumstance, she might have found it amusing, given that this merman was downright _massive_. She glanced back once, to try and get a better look at him, for no other reason than to sate her own curiosity. Where Ulaz’s tail reminded her more of a nurse shark, this merman’s tail had markings similar to those of whale sharks, with off-white spots running up the entire length of it.

Only once they were safety back on the boat did Pidge motion to the second merman. “Who’s that?” she asked.

“Antok,” Ulaz said. “Fishing time.”

Pidge wanted to ask Shiro if they could stay and watch, but realized that it wasn’t possible. There was no way that she and Shiro would be able to swim fast enough to keep up with Ulaz and Antok. So, she let it go and wished Ulaz—and Antok—happy hunting before they left.

—

“What’s your favorite food?” Pidge asked as she kicked her legs back and forth—they were too short for her toes to reach the water.

Keith scoffed. “ _Fish_ ,” he said, peering at her curiously, as if wondering why she had asked him at all when she should have known that.

“I talked to your dad today—Ulaz,” she elaborated, when Keith looked confused, as if he wasn’t sure which father she was referring to. “He was about to go fishing when we left him.”

Keith’s ears twitched at that. “Big?” he asked, tilting his head to that side curiously.

“I think he said he was hunting marlin?” Pidge guessed. They had played charades just before she and Shiro had left, since Ulaz hadn’t known the name for the species in English. “You know… large fish with the big nose and a sail on the back—”

Keith let out a displeased hiss, as a look of complete and utter betrayal appeared on his features—it was the epitome of _without me_?

And Pidge couldn’t stop her laughter.


	7. Chapter 7

On occasion, Pidge invited her friends, Lance and Hunk, to the institute so that they could see some of the animals—it was _on occasion_ , because she always had to get permission for them to be allowed in. Iverson was notorious for denying access to the back rooms, even to close friends of the staff. Pidge could understand his reasoning, of course, since neither Lance or Hunk had any kind of training when it came to dealing with animals, but both of them _loved_ the ocean, so she tried to get them VIP passes when she could.

And she really wanted to introduce them to the mermen.

For once, they actually arrived on time—but Hunk was driving, so she wasn’t surprised when their car pulled into the lot. Lance practically raced over to greet her, scooping her up and spinning her around as she gave a surprised yelp of _Lance put me down_. Hunk joined in the hug when he made it over after locking his car.

“We haven’t seen you in weeks, Pidgey!” Lance argued, though he did set her down on the ground again. When she had first mentioned that he and Hunk should come to visit the animals, she had expected him to respond within two seconds that he’d be there. Lance was always excited to see the creatures in rehabilitation, no matter what they were. His favorite animals were the sharks they kept for educational purposes, and he loved to watch them swim in their tanks.

“Yeah, Pidge!” Hunk agreed. “You haven’t hung out with us in a while—I was starting to get a little worried.” Hunk was more interested in the smaller animals they had at the institute—the ones that were far less likely to bite. One of the sea otters that had become a permanent resident after it had had to have one of its arms amputated was Hunk’s favorite, and he made a point of visiting it every chance he got.

“Sorry, we’ve just been… busy around here,” Pidge said as she led them inside. The recent lull that always came in the middle of the week was the reason she had invited them today. When they finally arrived at the door that led back into the observation rooms, Pidge stopped before she inserted her key card.

“Promise me that you won’t freak out when I show you what’s back here,” she said, leveling them both with a serious look. “You might startle them if you’re too eager, and they’ve just started to calm down enough that I feel like it’s a good idea to introduce them to new people.”

Hunk and Lance exchanged a glance—while Hunk appeared to be worried, Lance’s expression was a mix between skeptical and curious.

“Is this a legally binding promise?” Lance asked.

Pidge scoffed, rolling her eyes. “Yes, _obviously_ ,” she said dryly. “You two are being sworn to secrecy. That’s the only way I could get Iverson and my dad to agree to let you two see them.”

“Yeah, Pidge!” Hunk agreed, smiling easily at her. “Of course we’ll keep it a secret, if it’s that important.”

Pidge looked at Lance, crossing her arms over her chest as she waited for him to also agree to her terms, as Hunk had.

Lance heaved a sigh, mimicking her posture. “Yeah, yeah, Pidgey,” he assured her. “Of course I promise.”

With that settled, Pidge inserted her key card and let both of them into the observation room before motioning towards Thace’s tank. She wasn’t surprised that he continued hiding in the plants—he only lifted his head to check on who was entering the room, but upon confirming it was just her, he yawned wide and went back to his nap. However, while he was largely uninterested in her arrival or her friends, Lance and Hunk appeared to be in awe, staring at Thace with wide eyes and slack jaws.

“That’s a merman…” Hunk said, voice little more than a whisper. “That’s a _merman_! Pidge, where did you find him?!”

“He was caught out in a net with his son,” Pidge explained. “Just off Blade Reef… he’s normally a little more active than this, though…” Frowning, she made a quick note of Thace’s behavior—he still slept most of the day and only came out of hiding when he was talking to her. She had hoped that he’d feel better now that he had his bonding necklace back, but he still seemed drained. She doubted he’d be open to talking with Hunk and Lance since he didn’t appear to have much energy today.

Without any further prompting, Lance hurried over to the glass, pressing his nose up against it. “ _Whoa_!”

Pidge rolled her eyes as she heaved a sigh. “ _Lance_!” she said sharply. “Leave him alone. He doesn’t like being gawked at…”

Lance waved her off, indicating he had heard her, but wasn’t too keen on listening.

“Where’s the other one?” Hunk asked, nudging her shoulder lightly in order to get her attention. “You mentioned he has a son?”

Pidge nodded. “Yeah, I keep telling Iverson that we should put them back together, but he keeps saying no…”

“Why?” Hunk asked, curiously peering into the tank.

Thace’s ear flicked, and he half turned onto his back to glance at them. His brow furrowed as he seemed to realize that they didn’t have any intentions of leaving him alone. He cautiously poked his head out of the plants to peer back at them, watching with two parts trepidation and one part curiosity. His eyes flicked to her and he let out a soft trilling noise, as if he were asking who these new people were and why she had brought them here. However, even in their presence, he made no move to ram the glass. He didn’t seem to consider Lance or Hunk to be threats—perhaps he had realized how young they were in comparison to the rest of the staff.

“They’re worried that the stress of the environment would cause Thace to reject Keith, maybe even attack him,” Pidge explained—as she spoke, she made a quick note of Thace’s reaction to Lance and Hunk on her clipboard. “I keep telling them that Thace isn’t gonna attack his son, but they won’t listen… or they’re worried Thace is a safety risk to the staff which is is just _ridiculous_ —”

“So, this one is Thace?” Hunk asked, smiling as he turned back to the tank. Then, he lifted a hand and waved. “Hi, Thace! It’s nice to meet you!”

Thace’s ears drew back, twitching uneasily at the sides of his head as he heard his name. He didn’t react beyond that, continuing to stare at them warily.

“He’s not very friendly, is he?” Lance asked, before lightly rapping his knuckles against the glass.

The gesture was not appreciated. Thace flinched back slightly with each tap as a scowl appeared on his features. He hissed softly, baring his teeth as his bio-luminescent markings flared up. Then, he returned to the plants—as always, the end of his tail was visible, poking out of his hiding place. Pidge could still make out the glow of his eyes, though.

“Lance, leave him alone. When his markings flare up like that, it means you’ve pissed him off,” Pidge said, grabbing him by the collar and pulling him away from the glass. “Besides, you’re just making yourself look like an idiot—he’ll never pay attention to you if you continue to invade his space like that.” And Thace didn’t have a lot of space to invade in the first place.

“Can we see the son now?” Hunk asked, sounding hopeful—he looked ready to start bouncing on his toes. “You said his name was Keith, right?”

“Yeah, we can go see Keith now,” Pidge said as she turned and started leading them away from Thace’s tank. “He’s a lot more likely to talk to us anyway.”

She opened the door to the other observation room, letting Lance and Hunk walk through as she held the door open for them, before following them into the room. Almost as soon as the door closed, she heard Thace let out a call from the other room, a noise which caused both Hunk and Lance to pause.

“He’s checking on Keith,” Pidge explained.

As she approached the tank, she heard Keith respond with a sharp whistle. He didn’t immediately come out to greet her, though. He was barely visible, hidden amongst the shadows at the back of his tank—his glowing eyes were locked onto Lance and Hunk, and she saw them narrow ever so slightly as he watched them skeptically. However, when he saw her, he seemed a little less hesitant. While he was still wary, he poked his head out of the plants, but didn’t fully emerge.

“Keith, it’s okay,” Pidge assured him, trying to coax him out before Lance could tap the glass and accidentally startle him back into hiding like he had with Thace. Not only would Keith be annoyed with their visitor, he would also be annoyed with her for bringing people to see him that ended up aggravating him. Instead, Pidge tried to calm him, speaking slowly and easily. “These are my friends… like Shiro?” she tried, tilting her head to the side as she approached the glass. “You like Shiro, right?”

He appeared to consider, hesitating as he attempted to work out what she had said. His ears perked at the mention of Shiro, who was the only other staff member that Keith actually liked. Slowly, he left his hiding place amongst the plants and, as he approached the glass, his gaze darted back and forth between Pidge and her friends.

Then, he raised his hand, pressing it up against the glass. Pidge mimicked him after a moment, lifting her hand to rest it opposite to his. It had become a form of greeting between the two of them since Keith had actually warmed up to her, although she knew it was unlikely that he would be as willing to do it with someone he didn’t know very well. Judging by the way he was still watching Lance and Hunk, he would not do it with them. However, he didn’t dart off, even though his ears were twitching nervously against the sides of his head. Pidge smiled reassuringly, watching him with a fond tilt of her head.

“This is Keith,” Pidge introduced him, turning her gaze back to Lance and Hunk. “Keith, this is Lance and Hunk…”

Keith glanced back to her friends as a curious trill rose in the back of his throat. While Lance seemed to be unable to speak, even though he had been introduced, Hunk was able to introduce himself.

“Hi, Keith,” he said. “I’m Hunk! It’s nice to meet you… now, how deep would you say you’re able to dive? What kind of fish do you eat?”

“Huuuuunk, why are you asking all the boring questions?” Lance whined, before he turned his attention back to Keith. “Have you ever fought a shark? How big was it?”

Keith tilted his head to the side, ears alert, but he didn’t respond—because he couldn’t right now, not that Lance or Hunk seemed to realize that as they kept spouting off questions. As Keith glanced back and forth between the two of them, Pidge was tried to contain her laughter. There wasn’t much hope of Keith being able to speak back to her friends unless it was through whistles, trills, or chirps, none of which Lance or Hunk could understand. Pidge could understand a couple, but she had no hope of replicating any of them without the use of an external device.

“Come on, we can go up to the feeding station,” she said, cutting off the barrage of questions that Lance and Hunk were lobbing Keith’s way. “Y’know, so that he can actually talk back to you guys and be heard properly.”

Once they were up there, Keith ended up telling them a story about fighting off sharks—because one of his dads had fought off a shark, back when he was a pup. It was a story she had heard before, so she wasn’t surprised when Keith eventually revealed that Thace had been the one to fight the shark off. However, both Lance and Hunk listened with rapt attention, completely enthralled by the story—or perhaps by the fact that a merman was speaking with them, even if they had to be patient because Keith had to figure out which words to use.

Pidge rolled her eyes when Lance unintentionally ended up teaching Keith a couple of more… colorful words.

While Keith responded very well to the attention, and even seemed to slowly warm up to her friends, Pidge could tell that after about an hour of questions, he was getting a little antsy and wanted to be alone. It took a little bit of needling before Lance finally gave it up, although Hunk was quick to wish Keith a good evening before the merman disappeared back underneath the water and into the plants again.

She was happy that Keith was beginning to open up a little more, at least.

After Keith had disappeared, she escorted Hunk and Lance back to the parking lot.

“So, that’s why you’ve spending barely any time with us…” Lance said, and Hunk nudged him lightly on the shoulder. Lance turned to shoot Hunk an annoyed look. “Whaaaaat? I’m starting to think she likes Keith better than us!”

“I’m sure it’s not that!” Hunk insisted. However, he looked at Pidge in concern. “It’s not that, is it?”

“What? Of course not,” Pidge said quickly, shaking her head. “I’ve just been busy because it’s my job to take care of them. That’s all.”

“A likely story!” Lance said, looking unconvinced, although his tone was teasing.

Pidge sighed, rolling her eyes. “ _Lance_ —”

“I will accept your apology on one condition!” Lance continued, ignoring her. “You get us back in there to talk to them again.”

“Done,” Pidge said automatically. “But it won’t be for another week or two—and you have to learn some manners!”

Lance opened his mouth as if he was about to argue, but Hunk cut him off with a stern glare and he pouted childishly. Pidge was still smiling as they drove away.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The art in this chapter was done by [CrystalPallette](https://crystalpallette.tumblr.com/post/168698818881/i-should-not-be-this-proud-of-a-few-particles).

“And what’s _this_ one?” Pidge asked, holding up another flash card. A pile of the ones they had already gone through sat beside her, while she held half of the deck in her other hand. On the card was a hastily drawn dog—she had been trying to draw Rover when she was making the card. Not her best work, but when she had first made these about two weeks ago, she had been in a rush and hadn’t bothered to remake them later so that they looked better.

Keith peered at the card, ears flicking almost incessantly as he thought. His tail fin slapped against the water as a displeased hiss left him, and he displayed his sharp teeth. However, his bio-luminescent markings didn’t flare up, so she knew he wasn’t feeling aggressive. He was more frustrated than anything.

It must have been on the tip of his tongue.

Pidge kicked her legs back and forth idly, trying to contain her grin as she leaned forward to rest her elbows on her thighs. “It’s an animal?” she offered.

Keith gave her a look that could’ve been interpreted as him saying _no shit_ —they had only been going through the animal cards.

“I have one,” Pidge said.

He visibly perked up at that, ears and all. She had talked about her dog before, when trying to explain what a dog was—they didn’t have ‘dogs’, as they were, under the sea. The closest comparisons Keith seemed to be able to draw were to overly excited and playful sea lions or seals. Keith had apparently seen dogs before, because they often ran along the shore and scared him off when he was trying to nap or eat a meal in peace.

He had tried to explain that he was interested in petting one, but had never gotten a chance because he was actually a little afraid of them.

“D-Dog?” he finally said, tilting his head to the side as he stared at her. His ears twitched as he waited for her to tell him if he was correct or not.

“Great,” Pidge said, grinning at him before she pulled the next card, holding it out for him to see. This one had a chicken on it.

“Bird!” Keith said immediately. He looked rather pleased with himself, as bird had been one of the first words he had learned, but he had never seen the chicken card before.

“But what _kind_ of bird?” Pidge asked.

Keith frowned before he sank back into the water, so that only his eyes and ears were visible. However, his irritation was still pretty clear, based solely on how his ears were flicking. This one was a little more tricky for him—or so Pidge assumed. He had only learned the word _chicken_ a couple of days ago, when she had been explaining the concept of a farm to him. Apparently, mermen sometimes farmed crustaceans, as she had learned when Keith recognized that she was talking about animal husbandry.

“Chisin,” Keith said hesitantly after he rose out of the water again. He didn’t look entirely sure of himself. “The loud one.”

“ _Chicken_ ,” she corrected. “But you were very close.”

“Sorry,” Keith said, ears drawing back against the sides of his head.

“It’s okay,” Pidge said patiently. “You’re still learning. Besides, you already talk better than most of the kids in my twelfth grade English class.”

“Pidge!”

Keith darted back into the water at the sound of Pidge’s father approaching, tail slapping against the surface with a loud splash. Pidge looked over her shoulder to see her father standing nearby. He did _not_ look happy with her, and she could feel her heart rate spike as a sense of dread came over her—she knew why he was angry. She wasn’t supposed to be sitting with her feet dangling over the edge of the feeding platform like she was, but it was more comfortable than sitting cross-legged. Before he had to repeat himself, she hastily gathered up her flash cards and stashed them in one of her pockets as she stood up.

“What did you think you were doing?” her father questioned. “He could have dragged you into the water! I thought I told you to be more careful!”

Pidge flinched slightly at the tone of his voice—he sounded furious with her, although she was certain it was born out of worry. Of course, he didn’t know that Keith was harmless and wouldn’t intentionally drag her into the water. She was the only person on the staff who actually knew anything about the mermen aside from Shiro, and nobody listened to her when she tried to explain. She wasn’t sure if Thace or Keith had ever tried speaking with any of the other staff members. She knew that Keith liked Shiro too, since Shiro would play games with him in order to help him stave off boredom, but other than that…

As she was led away from the tank by her arm, she caught sight of Keith. His eyes widened as he peered out of the plants at the back of his tank, and he let out a high pitched whistle. With his ears pinned back, it wasn’t very difficult for her to figure out that he was in distress. Pidge hoped that he didn’t think that it was his fault that she was in trouble right now. She had been intentionally going against her father’s rules, and Keith had nothing to do with that.

“Why did you think it was a good idea to do that?” her father asked as they entered the next room. “This is the _second_ time I’ve caught you doing that.”

As they passed his tank, Thace drowsily raised his head and poked it out of the plants. Irritation was plain on his face, but when he noticed Pidge was there and being led away by her father, his expression softened and his ears perked. She heard him let out a confused sounding trill as well, but her father didn’t pay the merman any mind.

“I was _trying_ to teach Keith how to speak English. That’s all,” she insisted. It wasn’t something she had brought up before—or at least, tried to explain. She had been worried that her father wouldn’t believe her, that he’d dismiss her like Iverson and so many other staff members had. But at this point, she was desperate, and she didn’t care anymore. “I just wanted to help him communicate!”

Her father stopped abruptly at that, and he glanced back at her, eyes widening. “You’re pulling my leg,” he scoffed.

“I’m not,” Pidge said, shaking her head. She took her father’s hand and dragged him over towards Thace’s tank. “Thace!”

“You named them?” her father asked, quirking a brow at her. He still seemed skeptical, but he was willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.

“No, that’s his _actual_ name,” Pidge said, shaking her head before she turned back to the tank. “Thace! Hey, can you come out and say hello, please?”

Thace poked his head hesitantly out of the plants, eyes narrowed suspiciously at her father.

“He’s not going to hurt you, I promise,” she said as a means of encouragement.

Thace still seemed reluctant, but at Pidge’s plea, he slowly slid out of the plants and approached the glass. She raised her hand, resting it against the glass, and Thace raised his hand in greeting, pressing it where hers lay. Then, he looked at her father, eyes narrowing slightly as a low growl rose in his throat. When her father started to reel back, Pidge caught him by the arm to keep him in place.

“It’s okay, Dad,” she said quickly. “His bio-luminescent markings aren’t flaring up. He’s not angry. Just nervous.”

“ _He’s_ nervous—” her father muttered. However, he took a deep breath and regained his composure before looking back and forth between her and Thace. “What am I supposed to…”

“Just put your hand on the glass,” Pidge explained. “If he accepts the greeting, he’ll mimic you.”

Her father raised his hand, pressing it against the glass. And Thace stared—or perhaps _glared_ would’ve been a more accurate description of the expression on his face. His ears had pinned back against his head and he bared his sharp teeth as he hissed softly, but he didn’t ram against the glass as she had often seen him do when in the presence of her father. However, her father returned the glare, even mimicked Thace by bearing his not-so-sharp teeth and giving his best interpretation of a hiss.

Pidge was worried for a moment, that Thace would take offense—but instead he trilled softly in amusement, and then rested his hand where her father’s was.

“Do you want to talk to him?” Pidge asked.

Her father looked less skeptical than he had before, but he still hesitated for a good half-minute before nodding. “Yes, if he’s willing.”

“Thace, we’re coming up to the feeding platform,” Pidge said as she grabbed her father by the hand again. She quickly led him up to the feeding platform and pulled out her flash cards again while waiting for Thace to come to the surface. When he did so, he tilted his head to the side. “Hello, Thace!”

“Hello,” Thace said. Then, he motioned to Pidge’s father. “Who?”

“This is my dad,” Pidge introduced him. “Dad, this is Thace. He’s Keith’s dad…”

But her father didn’t appear to have heard her. He was staring in shock at the merman, who had only spoken two words of English. Pidge knew that this must be an important scientific breakthrough for her father—after all, there were no known non-humans on the planet who could talk. As such, she was not surprised when her father started spouting off questions.

How did they learn to speak? Could all of Thace’s people speak? At what age did their children start learning? Did they have different languages like humans did?

Her father was speaking so quickly, Pidge doubted that Thace was understanding much of it. He actually kind of sunk back into the water until only his eyes and ears were visible, watching her father in what could only be described as shock. She had never been nearly this talkative around him, so he might have been getting overwhelmed.

“Dad— _stop_ , you’re going to frighten him,” Pidge cut in before her father could start asking more scientific questions.

“Right, right…” her father said quickly, before he leaned out to try and catch Thace’s gaze. “Sorry about that, Thace…”

Thace’s ears twitched, but he did rise out of the water again. “It is fine…”

“You said the other one is named Keith?” her father asked.

“Yes,” Pidge said, nodding quickly. “Thace’s mate told me.”

“Oh, so he has a mate?” her father asked in interest—he looked as if he wanted to ask more questions and was barely managing to restrain himself from doing so.

Thace held his bonding necklace up and tapped one of the scales with a claw. “Ulaz.”

“That’s his bonding necklace,” Pidge explained. At her father’s confused look, she added, “It’s… basically like a wedding ring.”

“Fascinating,” her father said, grinning wide.

She hesitated to bring up that the mermen would eventually need to leave. But she also knew that she had already come this far, and her father now _believed_ her so… what did she have to lose?

“Ulaz… he wants to know when they’re coming back home, Dad,” Pidge said, looking at her father pleadingly. “He really misses them.”

Her father sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked hesitant to speak—and the longer he went without saying anything, the more anxiety crackled in the air. Thace seemed to pick up on it too, as a confused sounding chirp left him and his ears pinned back again. When her father finally spoke, it was the exact opposite of what she wanted to hear.

“Keith… he’s scheduled to be transferred to Daibazaal Aquarium in a couple of days,” her father explained. “They want… to continue the research we started here, and they have equipment we don’t have here…”

Thace was watching her father with twitching and alert ears as his brow furrowed—he appeared to be trying to understand what her father had just said. It felt like Pidge’s heart had frozen in her chest because they—they _couldn’t_. Keith would never be able to handle being so badly displaced from his family like that! Thace had only been separated by a wall in a too-small tank for little under a day before he had begun to show symptoms of overt distress—within three weeks, he had slipped into a depressed state and had lost most of his energy. Pidge couldn’t even begin to imagine how Keith, who was much younger, would react to being uprooted and put into a new environment where he didn’t know _anybody_ …

She wouldn’t be able to go with him.

“What about—they _can’t_ do that!”

Her shout startled Thace and he sank back into the water again, with only his eyes and ears visible. He continued to watch them with twitching ears, which were now pinned back as his distress became plainer.

“Dad, you _have_ to talk to Iverson—they can’t do that!” Pidge insisted. “You’d be taking Keith from his _family_ —” She paused and motioned vaguely in Thace’s direction. And the motion, Thace’s eyes widened and he let out a distressed sounding trill. “Their families are so important to them, you can’t—”

Her father hesitated to say anything, seeming frozen beneath her pleading look. He only looked back at Thace when the merman lightly slapped his tail fin against the surface of the water in an attempt to get their attention. Thace glance at Pidge and then back at her father—he also let out a soft trill that could have been interpreted as a plea, ears twitching at the sides of his head.

“He’s trying to ask for you to think about being in his position,” Pidge said. “If _your_ kid was being sent off somewhere, without your consent, where _you_ couldn’t follow… wouldn’t you be upset too?”

“I’ll talk to Iverson,” her father assured them. “See what I can do.”

Pidge sighed in relief. “Thanks, Dad… I’m sure Thace appreciates it.”

Judging by the way Thace’s ears were still twitching, he was still distressed, but before Pidge could say anything to comfort him, he sunk back into the water and out of sight.

—

The next couple of days were a struggle for Pidge. While her father had been trying desperately to get through to Iverson, he had been having no success. It seemed like a hopeless endeavor, trying to convince him that Keith needed to remain with Thace and both of them should be released back into the bay. Pidge had actually been avoiding going down to the water because she didn’t want to run into Ulaz, as he was likely to ask after his mate and pup.

She had been struggling to find a way to tell him that it wasn’t looking like they would be returning to him anytime soon—if ever. Well, Thace perhaps, if they ever decided to release him back into Marmora Bay, but Keith? He would surely be kept at Daibazaal until they learned anything and everything they could about him.

Or until the environment stressed him beyond his limit and he died from it. Judging from Thace’s reaction to being cooped up while he was close enough to still talk to Keith was proof enough for her that complete and total isolation from the rest of his pod would spell disaster for Keith’s emotional state and wellbeing. Pidge felt that in that case, the worst case scenario was Keith taking the same turn as some captive orcas—violent outbursts and possible psychosis.

Pidge had some ideas about what she could do but… she didn’t know how viable any of them were as options. And she was running out of time to figure it out.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first art in this chapter was done by [CrystalPallette](https://crystalpallette.tumblr.com/post/168698818881/i-should-not-be-this-proud-of-a-few-particles)
> 
> The second art in this chapter was done by [Meteorysh](http://meteorysh.tumblr.com/).

She finally sucked it up, two days before Keith was slotted to be relocated, and trudged down to the cove she frequented—she was hoping to run into Ulaz while he was hunting for shells—purple ones—in the shallower waters. Finding him there would have been easier than trying to track him down another way, and she was running out of time to talk to him. Normally, he met up with Shiro at a predesignated time, but Pidge knew that there wasn’t supposed to be another meeting until after Keith got transferred. Guilt had been eating at Pidge, because even if Thace was returned safe and sound, Ulaz was still going to be losing his child… she couldn’t continue avoiding the topic when it was something so intrinsically connected to his wellbeing.

When she arrived at the cove, the sun was beginning to set, dipping lower in the sky and casting a faint reddish glow across the water. She didn’t see Ulaz as she looked around. He would be easy enough to spot, due to his lighter coloration. She could remember back when she was a child, she had spotted him amongst the waves because of it—and because he had been foolish and ventured too close to a group of humans.

While she didn’t see Ulaz, she shrieked in surprise when another merman poked his head above the water in front of her. An amused trill left his throat at her reaction to his sudden appearance—his trills came out much deeper than either Ulaz or Thace’s did. She had seen him before, when he had come to fetch Ulaz for hunting—what was his name? Antok?

One of his ears flicked as he waited for her to say something. He didn’t appear to be startled by her presence, but she assumed that was because he recognized her… or perhaps didn’t consider her much of a threat to begin with, due to her being _minuscule_ compared to him. He was still remarkably calm about this situation, even if this stretch of beach was normally devoid of tourists. He might have thought it was unlikely a human would stumble upon him while he was… hunting, perhaps? Looking to sun himself on one of the rocks? He did glance around, ears perked and twitching, just to be sure they were alone, but upon confirming it was just her, he stared at her again.

“Is Ulaz around?” she asked, tilting her head to the side as she crouched down at the edge of the water. She was careful to move slowly, since she was a little unfamiliar with how he would react to sharp movements—she knew that Ulaz tracked her with his eyes while Thace was more likely to avoid eye contact if he was uncomfortable, but would still move his ears to try and listen to her movements. Antok’s ears flicked as he frowned at her, and judging by the sigh he let out—deep in his chest, coming out as more a growl—he was exasperated. However, he motioned for her to stay put before he disappeared into the water. His shadow melted back into the depths.

Pidge settled down, sitting on the rocks. She had considered bringing Ulaz some sort of trinket, as a gift of sympathy—but she had realized how callous that might seem. She didn’t even know if mermen had a concept of gift giving in trying times, or if they just accepted things easily. She didn’t have as much time to think on it as she would have liked. Ulaz poked his head above the water only around ten minutes after Antok had disappeared. He carried a fish in his jaws, and he seemed rather pleased with his catch when he presented it to her, nudging it in her direction.

Pidge forced a smile as she accepted it. She wasn’t prepared to gut and clean it, though. Instead, she pulled out the small collapsible cooler pack that she had brought specifically for this type of situation. “Thank you, Ulaz,” she said politely.

Silence stretched between them, then—Pidge was trying to find the strength to tell him about what was going to happen to Keith… since her father hadn’t managed to get Iverson to budge, no matter what he tried, there was little hope of Keith being returned to the bay with Thace. Ulaz watched her intently, waiting for her to say something, but she found herself unable to speak. She didn’t know how to phrase it delicately enough, to keep from offending him in some way.

How was she supposed to tell him that he was unlikely to see his son ever again? She had been trying for the last couple of days to get anybody besides her father, brother, and Shiro to listen but _nobody_ would—

“Pidge?” Ulaz prompted, tilting his head to the side. “Alright?”

She heaved a sigh and shook her head. “I… I came out here because I have something I need to tell you. It’s about Thace and Keith—”

She visibly flinched when his expression brightened at the mention of his mate and son. However, upon noticing her reaction, his mood quickly deflated again. He peered at her, looking for some sort of explanation.

“Keith is being moved to Daibazaal,” Pidge began. “It’s—”

“Far,” Ulaz finished for her. “We come from there.”

Pidge looked at him in confusion. “What?”

“He was born there,” Ulaz explained as his ears shifted back and drooped. “Safer _here_. Warmer, too.”

Pidge kicked her feet back and forth slowly in the water. Bile was rising in her throat—she considered Ulaz to be a friend, so to see him upset, and to have it be outside of her control was just…

“He’s being moved in two days,” she said, gently as she could. “I’ve tried to explain the situation, but they won’t _listen_ —I just—I know how much Keith means to you and Thace—”

“The pod is life,” Ulaz cut in. His explanation only further proved her point on this matter. His voice cracked as he spoke, but he appeared to be holding himself together pretty well—much better than Thace had when Pidge had explained to him exactly what was going to happen to Keith. However, Pidge noticed how his ears were twitching, how he was trying to keep a fidget under control, claws tapping against the rock she was sitting on. He must have wanted nothing more than to return to his cave, probably to start sulking like Thace had been doing for the last month.

“Ulaz, I’m so sorry…” Pidge said, voice sincere as she met his gaze. “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do… I can’t do anything…”

“Rebel,” Ulaz suggested. While he looked as if he was going to say more, he stopped there, letting out a low trill as his ears flicked. He peered at her, tilting his head to the side. “Right word?”

Pidge didn’t even know where he might have picked that word up unless he had been hiding out underneath the boardwalk around the movie theater and listening to excited sci-fi fans. Still, she managed a laugh. “If you mean, fight back against something I disagree with, then yes… that’s the right word,” she said.

Silence spread between them after she finished speaking. She only had a few vague ideas of how she could do that. Talking to Iverson hadn’t worked so far, since he either tuned her out, or outright refused to see her at all. He was also ignoring her father entirely, even though her father was one of the best in the field. He certainly wouldn’t pay her any mind if she tried to stage a sit-in, especially if she was the only person participating—but even if she could get Lance and Hunk to help…

“What of Shiro?” Ulaz asked, perhaps in an attempt to make a suggestion, perhaps asking what his friend’s thoughts on the matter were.

Pidge shook her head. “He hasn’t been able to get through to them, either,” she said. He had been trying since the beginning to convince someone, and had only made headway with her. But she paused, remembering that Shiro was a seasoned member of the staff… meaning he had access to the building at all hours, rather than only during his shift. She had considered the option of staging a ‘merman breakout’ for all of two seconds when it had become clear that Iverson wasn’t budging. However, when she had remembered that it was impossible to get into the building without a very specific key card, she had pushed the idea onto the backburner, thinking it implausible. But if Shiro was willing to help her…

Noticing that she had gone quiet and seemed to be thinking, Ulaz titled his head to the side as he let out a confused chirp.

“But… he might be able to help me with something,” Pidge said. She was on her feet before Ulaz could respond. “Just— _wait here_ … I’ll be back in a couple of hours. Perhaps by morning.”

“What are you doing?” Ulaz asked, peering at her curiously.

“Rebelling,” Pidge said with a wide grin.

Ulaz managed to crack a smile at that, even if it seemed a little forced on her behalf. He appeared more hopeful than he had been since she had told him about what was happening to Keith, though. Without another word, he slid back into the water and disappeared under the surface again—probably to hide and wait it out.

As she walked back down the shore, she pulled out her phone and started a new group text.

—

_To: Lance ; Hunk ; Shiro_

_I’m going to need your help._

—

Attempting to pull a merman out of his tank in the middle of the night was not something that Pidge had ever thought she would be doing—but here she was, accompanied by two of her best friends and one of her co-workers. While Shiro had initially half-heartedly argued against ‘stealing two mermen from the institute under the cover of darkness’—his words, not hers—he had been convinced rather easily.

They had started with Thace—the idea was that getting the larger merman out of his tank first would make getting Keith out of his seem easier by comparison. When she had first gotten to his tank, she had been prepared to get Thace’s attention, but he was already at the surface. He had tilted his head to the side, looking at her companions skeptically. While he had seen Lance and Hunk several times, and Shiro helped take care of him, Pidge knew that the only reason Thace was trusting them was because he trusted her.

As soon as Pidge had asked him if he was ready to go home, Thace had perked up at the suggestion and quickly nodded. He had seemed _very_ eager to get out of his tank and back into the bay. Pidge couldn’t blame him for that, though, seeing as he had been cooped up in his tank for over a month with no sign of escape in sight. She wondered if he had assumed that he was never going to get free. She knew that Keith had remained pretty optimistic on that front—perhaps _stubborn_ was a more accurate descriptor, though.

Getting Thace out of his tank was a process—he must’ve weighed at least nine hundred pounds, and even with four young adults pulling him out of the tank, it had still taken them a good fifteen minutes. They might have been able to do it faster, but Shiro had been worried about harming Thace in the process. As soon as he had been pulled out of his tank, he shook his head, water flying from his fur as it fluffed up. Then, he watched them, tilting his head to the side as if asking what their next move was. She was surprised by how Thace followed after them into the next room. He more or less dragged himself across the floor using his arms—and it seemed like an awkward way to get around, not to mention tiring. But Thace had been determined to do so.

As soon as they entered the observation room, Keith rushed out of the plants—and upon seeing his father, he let out one of the happiest sounding trills that Pidge had ever heard him make. Keith pawed at the glass excitedly, chirping as his ears twitched against the sides of his head. Luckily, getting Keith out of his tank was much easier, if only because he weighed a lot less. Thace had to wait at the bottom of the ladder, but Pidge could hear his anxious chirping as he shifted. It sounded almost like he was pacing, with his tail sliding along the ground behind him.

Then, one of the doors opened and all attempts at saving Keith halted as a low growl left Thace’s throat. Pidge saw the flash of Thace’s eyes in the darkness as he turned to face the person who had just entered. For a moment, Pidge was worried it was her father, or even Iverson, but she breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw it was just her brother. When Thace’s bio-luminescent markings flared and he bared his canines, though, she quickly turned away from helping pull Keith out of the tank. Shiro called her name as he, Lance, and Hunk lurched forward slightly and nearly dropped Keith back in the water.

“Whoa, whoa!” Matt said, hurriedly taking two steps back as Thace snarled at him. “Easy there… I’m here as a friend.”

“Thace, wait! It’s okay,” Pidge said quickly, leaning over the railing of the feeding platform. “That’s just my brother.”

Thace snorted, not looking convinced, but he stopped snarling.

“Matt, what are you doing here?” Pidge asked.

“You never came home, and then decided to start the party _without_ me,” Matt said, eyeing Thace warily. Thace huffed, ears pinning back as he hissed. However, his bio-luminescent markings were not flaring anymore. Matt stood his ground. He actually turned his gaze away and looked at Keith instead. “Hey, Keith. Hanging in there alright?”

Keith let out a strained chirp, muffled by one of his arms, but his ears had perked straight up in interest. Upon seeing Keith’s reaction, Thace’s ears shifted. They began conversing, with Thace continuing to be suspicious, while Keith seemed to be defending Matt.

“Does Keith know you?” Shiro asked.

Matt shrugged. “I caught him practicing words a couple days ago,” he said, smiling easily. “I helped him finally learn how to pronounce _chicken_ , so you’re welcome for that, Pidge.”

Eventually, Keith seemed to get through to his father, as Thace hissed but moved out of the way and let Matt pass. With Matt’s help, getting Keith out of the tank became much easier. As soon as he was halfway to freedom, Keith began squirming more, very much ready to be out of his tank. As soon as he was free, he physically shoved his way past Lance, Hunk, Pidge, Matt, and Shiro, and tumbled down the ladder into his father’s arms.

Pidge paused at the top of the ladder, and her gaze softened as she watched Thace and Keith rub cheeks. Their purring was so loud that it drowned out the air conditioners and water filtrators. As soon as they were done greeting one another, Thace immediately started grooming Keith’s hair, using his tongue—and even though Keith seemed embarrassed about it, judging by the slight grimace on his face and his displeased chirp, he sat still at a chastising trill from his father.

—

Pidge had been planning on taking a more… _scenic_ route to the beach to avoid getting caught.

Getting the mermen back to the car had been a process. Shiro had had to leave them after getting the mermen outside and loaded into the back of her mother’s minivan. Pidge hoped they wouldn’t be needing him for anything else that night. Besides, there was no room for him in the minivan anyway. Hunk had called shotgun, leaving Lance and Matt to be shoved in the backseat with Keith—who had been _fascinated_ by the concept of a seatbelt when Lance had helped him buckle up. Thace was half in the trunk, with his tail taking up what room in the backseat wasn’t occupied by Lance, Matt, and Keith.

Pidge slammed on the brakes and cursed as the light turned red—and her passengers all grunted as they were jerked forward in their seats. The loud thud in the trunk—no doubt from Thace slamming into something—caused her to wince.

“Everyone alright back there?” Pidge asked, looking over her shoulder.

Keith looked a little dazed, but otherwise unaffected by the car ride—Lance, however, looked _pissed_ because Thace’s tail had shoved him up against the window. Matt was sitting between Thace’s tail and Keith, and he didn’t look much happier. It took a moment for Thace’s head to appear over the top of the backseat, and he looked more green than purple, letting out a displeased trill. However, that was about as far as his complaining went.

“Are we almost there, Pidge?” Lance wheezed. “I think Thace’s tail is going to suffocate me…”

Thace’s ears twitched and shifted back against his head as he looked a little sheepish. “Sorry…” he mumbled as he tried to move his tail to give Lance more room. He ended up accidentally shoving Matt over and apologized again, fur fluffing up in embarrassment.

“It’s okay, it’s _fine_ ,” Matt quickly assured Thace.

“It’s just up here,” Pidge said. “If only we would stop _hitting red lights_!”

“Red… light?” Thace asked. However, he seemed to direct the question at Keith, as if he believed that Keith was more knowledgeable about human things. Keith launched into an explanation that involved no English and only clicks and trills, but Thace nodded in understanding a couple of moments later.

“Floor it!” Keith insisted, leaning forward into the front seat.

Hunk batted him back. “ _No_ , we can’t floor it!” he said, shaking his head. “It’s an intersection, not a go kart track!”

Keith let out a displeased sounding hiss as he sunk back into his seat, while Thace just seemed confused, ears twitching against the sides of his head. However, he didn’t ask for clarification on what ‘floor it’ meant.

“Besides, my mom would get the ticket if I broke the law,” Pidge said. “I don’t think ‘taking two merman I just stole from the marine institute back to the bay’ would be a good enough excuse to keep me from having my minivan privileges taken away.”

Matt chuckled. “We’re probably _both_ going to lose our driving privileges when Mom and Dad find out about this.”

“Worth it!” Pidge said. If she hadn’t been driving, she would’ve high-fived her brother too.

Since it was pretty late in the evening, she didn’t expect for there to be anyone down at the beach—which was good, since it meant that nobody would spot them returning a pair of mermen to the water. As soon as the trunk was open, Thace tumbled out and into the sand, with Keith sliding out a moment later. He seemed to be almost vibrating with excitement, as he must have recognized the location—and he let out an excited whistle, nudging Thace as Thace shook himself off, trying to get sand out of his fur.

Then, there was a surprised chirp from the water, and Ulaz’s head appeared out past the rocks. Keith was off in a flash, moving surprising fast across the sand and diving into the water. Ulaz met him halfway and gathered Keith up in his arms before he started trying to groom Keith’s hair like Thace had done. However, Keith began squirming, letting out a displeased hiss.

“Papa!” Keith complained, batting at his father even though he didn’t actually seem to mind that much. He just seemed happy to see him again.

Thace slid into the water a moment later and immediately snuggled into Ulaz’s arms when they were offered to him. Then, he butt their foreheads together and nuzzled Ulaz before shoving his head up underneath Ulaz’s chin. Both began purring deep in their chests then, and Keith joined in a moment later, smiling brightly.

Pidge found that she couldn’t contain her own smile. Matt nudged her in the side, beaming with pride.

“You did good…” he said.

“I had a lot of help,” Pidge said, grinning back at him.

“I’m glad they’re all back together…” Hunk said excitedly. “Look at how happy they are.”

Keith squirmed free of Ulaz’s grasp and swam quickly back over to the rocks. He chirped, ears perking up as he caught her eye, and she glanced at Hunk and Lance.

“Go on,” Lance encouraged, although his voice came out slightly teasing. “I think he wants to talk to you.”

Pidge shot him a look before she approached Keith where he floated in the water. She crouched down in front of him and he smiled at her, displaying his sharp teeth. However, he didn’t say anything. Instead, he lifted himself out of the water to nuzzle her, rubbing their cheeks together before running his nose along her temple.

“Thank you, for everything,” he said sincerely.

Pidge cleared her throat awkwardly, rubbing the back of her neck as she felt her cheeks heat up—just a little bit. “You-you’re welcome,” she managed to say.

“Still um… hang out?” Keith asked, tilting his head. He didn’t look like he was sure he had used the correct wording.

Pidge laughed. “Yeah, we can still hang out. I have a bunch I still need to teach you, right?”

Keith let out a pleased purr at that. He looked as if he were going to say more, but there was a sharp whistle from further off—from Ulaz, by the sound of things. Thace still had yet to move out from under Ulaz’s chin, and only cracked one eye open to check on Keith. Quickly, Keith turned his head to whistle back, perhaps to assure his fathers that he was coming. He offered her one final smile before he and his fathers disappeared back into the waves.

At least this time, she would see them again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this fic was a huge journey that accidentally ended up spawning an entire AU. This isn't the last you'll be seeing of this universe :3 I have backstory for Thace and Ulaz planned, the journey from Daibazaal to Marmora for the entire pod, and a bunch of little one-shots intended to further flesh out the world. If you're interested in those, I suggest you subscribe to me on here.
> 
> Or come and talk to me on tumblr. I am [revasnaslan](http://revasnaslan.tumblr.com/) over there, same as here.
> 
> Also make sure you check out my artists!! They're linked in the first chapter :3


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